My Tennis Angel: Revised
by BrookeLong
Summary: The revised story of Brooke Miyoko's climb to fame in the Angelic World! After moving from London to Japan, Brooke gets her angel and climbs her way to the top. However the climb is not without obstacles- like a rude boy and the reining champ Misaki!
1. During the Power Outage

**Chapter One: **_**During the Power Outage**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me. **

**A/N: Well I said I was going to rewrite this story and I've finally gotten around to doing it. I was going to start it last month but I decided to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and that took up all of my time. **

**For those who don't know NaNoWriMo is sort of a competition between you and time. During the course of November and starting from scratch, maybe a few notes or so, you write at least 50,000 words of a novel. The story can be any genre and it can even be fanfiction. So if I had any free time it was spent doing that and at some points I almost failed but I ended up with a good strong 51,627 words, making me an official winner. I encourage anyone who loves writing to try it out next year. Just an .org onto NaNoWriMo and you've got the site.**

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She sat down on one of the benches after her tennis lesson, only this time she was the one giving the lesson. Normally she came on a different day with a later time, with people her age, not elementary kids. But when her coach, Mary, called and said she was incredibly sick and couldn't make it Brooke Miyoko was forced to take over. Not that she really minded all that much. Brooke was a professional player, she had been for a year or so, the timing was just a bit annoying because there was supposed to be some kind of final tournament on one of her favorite channels. She would have to peddle hard on her bike in order to make it home on time.

Brooke took a swig out of her water bottle before picking up the tennis basket and proceeding to pick up the balls. As she put the basket on the ground and on top of a ball, the flexible metal moved and she was able to scoop the balls up without having to bend over. Lucky for her it was a generally cool day, the younger kids always left the balls out and sometimes when she helped out previously the back of her neck got burned.

As she was nearing the last couple balls on the court she heard a car horn honk and Brooke quickly looked up and over at the parking lot. Her older sister Aimee was getting out of the car and Brooke waited while her sister ran over towards her, her brown hair falling out of the messily-made bun on the back of her head.

"What are you doing here? I thought I was supposed to ride home today?" Brooke asked as her sister got closer. Aimee took a moment to catch her breath, she was in good shape but the court was a great size bigger than most.

"M-mom called and a-asked for me to bring you h-home." She panted, taking one more moment to get her breath back before straightening up.

"She was watching the weather and said that the storm that's been building up is going to strike this area soon, maybe half an hour or so, and didn't know if you could make it back in time so she wanted me to get you just in case." Aimee explained.

"What about work?" Brooke asked, picking up another ball with the basket. Aimee bent over and picked up a few balls, then dropped them in.

"Closed up early, every shop is. What kind of person would try to go to a restaurant during a huge storm that's predicted to tear down trees?"

"Shino." Brooke stated, referring to their older brother. Their dad was a full-blood Japanese, their mother only half. Shinosuke was the only one born in Japan, and the only one with a full Japanese name. When the Miyoko's moved to London a year before Aimee was born their mother wanted to name the rest of her children with more traditional English names, even though Brooke knew her siblings and her had some of the most uncommon names in the school. She had never met another Aimee yet, there was only one other Brooke in the school, and her younger brother Cobey had the same situation as Aimee's name.

"Well yes, he doesn't seem to have much common sense but he was valedictorian of his class and was smart enough to get one of the top positions in his company only after a year and a half of working there. That's why he got transferred to Japan and also why dad-." Aimee cut herself off.

"What about dad?" Brooke asked as she suddenly stopped picking up balls to look at her sister with a serious look on her face.

"Nothing. You'll find out about it later in due time. But I guess since school's about to end they might even tell you today." Aimee mumbled as she got to the last part. She picked up the last ball and tossed up in the air before placing it gently on top of the others.

"Tell me _what_?" Brooke asked a more serious tone in her voice.

"_Nothing_." Her sister said again rolling her eyes and giving a sarcastic smirk. Then she turned her back on Brooke and started to head towards the gate.

"Aimee! You cannot talk like that and say it's nothing. It _has_ to be _something_!" Brooke complained as she followed her sister, the basket bumping uncomfortably against her leg.

"Maybe, like I said dad wants to tell you."

"Then why in the world did you mention it?"

"Do you think your bike will fit in the back?"

"Oh come on! Do you like torturing me?"

"I guess it will have to fit won't it?"

"I give up!" Brooke exclaimed.

"Maybe if I use the wrench in the trunk to lower the bars and seat…" Aimee mumbled again, completely ignoring her sister.

"Now you're just being impossible." Brooke huffed as she sent a glare towards her sister. She would have rather slapped her on the back of her head but the basket of tennis balls made it hard to walk let alone hit someone.

"If it messes up the interior of my car Brooke's going to have to pay for it I guess." Aimee continued.

"OW!" she suddenly yelled as a ball collided with the back of her head. She whipped around, rubbing the back of her head, "BROOKE!"

"What? Little old me? I thought I didn't exist the way you were talking. I had to prove I was real somehow didn't I?" Brooke said sarcastically. She bent over and picked up the ball she had thrown as it rolled back towards her. She bounced it up and down in her hand a few times before looking at her sister.

"At least I can control my anger." Aimee said as she caught her sister's eye.

"But I'm not angry." Brooke replied with a fake pout on her face.

"Then I'd really hate to see you when you are angry."

"You wouldn't be able to see me. You'd be buried under a pile of these things." Brooke referred to the tennis balls. She started to walk forward and she tried to keep a straight face but as she passed Aimee the corners of her lips couldn't help but curl up a bit into a smile.

"Would I now?" Aimee asked folding her arms and following her sister, her own anger disappearing.

"Yup. You wouldn't be able to tell which way was up or down."

They had finally reached the gate that connected to the parking lot. Brooke took out a key and opened the shed next to the gate on the other side. After placing the balls inside and locking the shed, the two sisters spent a couple minutes working on getting Brooke's bike to shrink. They really did have to lower the bars and seat to fit it, and even with that done they could barely stuff it inside the small car.

As soon as the two girls got into the green car the rain started, the first few drops splattering on the windows.

"See, you wouldn't even be at the road yet and the rain has already started." Aimee pointed out as she turned on the car and backed up to get on the road.

"Yeah yeah, just drive." Brooke shook her head, with just a little smile still remaining. Brooke had a problem with storms, not water in general, but storms. It was a bad experience she didn't like to think of but every time a storm hit, no matter how big or small, her heart always raced a little faster. Not that she let her family see her fear, they thought she had gotten over it long ago.

Aimee took a left past the public swimming pool before she turned on the radio. Static made the songs almost impossible to decipher and after five minutes Aimee gave up and turned it off. The traffic light in front of them turned green and Aimee turned to the right onto the main road that their street branched off of.

It was silent as the car moved forward. The only thing that made any noise was the steady drops of rain hitting the car. Brooke noticed that the drops were hitting them faster and with more power. Aimee was driving much slower because now they couldn't see more than five feet in front of them.

"Maybe we should pull over into a driveway or something." Brooke suggested. She could feel a little bit of the color in her face draining away but she was doing her best to keep her composure. She would feel much more comfortable if the car stopped moving, images of them in a ditch were scaring her more than the storm.

"No way. We don't know how long this is going to go on, we might stuck out here for hours and in the worst part of it too. Plus out in this area there are more trees. I'd rather be in the house and have one fall on us than in this tiny car. Sorry, we're going to keep moving forward no matter what the pace is." Aimee told her sister, leaning forward a bit to try and see further down the road.

"We won't have to worry about a tree if we end up turned upside down in a ditch." Brooke retorted dolefully.

"I'm not going to drive us into a ditch. Plus we're only a three minute drive from out house. What's wrong with you?" Aimee asked glanced over at her sister for a second. It was all she needed to know what was running through her sister's mind.

"You're scared." she stated almost in surprise.

"No I'm not." Brooke responded back, no trace of the lie in her voice, "I just thought it would be better to stop but you've proven me wrong."

"Really?" Aimee asked knowing that what she heard was correct but the way Brooke had said it so honestly that she doubted herself now.

"Yes." Brooke responded grabbing her small purse she had with her. She opened it and took out a stick of gum and then offered one to her sister.

"No thanks." Aimee said, squinting harder for a second and then turned on the left blinker. She was only going ten miles per hour but she slowed down even more as she made the turn down Birch Road. The rain subsided a little as there were more trees to block the rain and seeing this Aimee sped up a little. Finally they reached Williams Avenue. Aimee took the right and then right once more as it was their driveway.

Aimee pulled into her spot and the two rushed out of the car as neither had an umbrella. They ran up their steps, feeling the cold rain beat against them furiously. When they reached the door Brooke wrenched it open and she and Aimee threw themselves inside the house, slamming the door behind them. In the brief twenty seconds they had spent outside they were soaked everywhere, dripping water on the floor.

Brooke heard the sound of a pot being placed down and hurried footsteps as their mother rushed into the room.

"You're home, thanks goodness. I thought you wouldn't have made it back and would have stopped somewhere along the way." she said as she stopped in front of the two. Then she looked at the both of them and then at the wet floor.

"Wait here for a moment." she told them and she left the room for a moment. Then she reappeared a minute later with two thick towels.

"Dry off as much as you can then go get changed. I've got to go and finish the dishes." their mother finished as she handed the two girls the towels and left for the last time. In silence the two girls dried themselves off as best they could before taking off their wet shoes and placing them by the door. Aimee went to the laundry room to put the towels in the wash while Brooke went into her room.

Since she knew she wouldn't be doing anything else that day she took out her purple fleece pajamas and changed. She made sure that she put her wet tennis clothes on the towel she kept in her room. Then she undid her brown hair that she had placed into a braid and brushed it. As she put the brush down she looked for a second into her blue-gray eyes.

Brooke took the moment to look at herself and she knew was decent in looks. Her friends told her that her oriental appearance made her good-looking but she didn't think it was anything too special. The prestigious school system she and Aimee went to had a lot of foreign students due to its influence so it wasn't like looking different made you stand out.

Height wise she stood about 5 foot 1 inch, a little short for a fourteen-year-old, but it made her faster on the tennis court. Along with tennis she was also good at most sports, except for soccer. Shino was the only child of the family to have inherited any talent of that particular sport.

She gave herself a smile before walking away from the mirror to pick up her tennis outfit to go put it in the wash. Aimee already had the washing machine going but she was told there was plenty of room left. It was right before she was about to leave that Aimee brought something to Brooke's attention.

"Didn't you want to watch some kind of tournament thing today?" she said, then she watched a look of shock come over her sister's face.

"That's right! I'm missing the whole thing, it's probably over by now!" Brooke said frantically before running out of the room and into the room where the family television was. She grabbed the remote and hopped onto the couch, hurriedly pressing the on button and flipping to the Japanese Channel.

Earlier that week she had seen the end of a commercial that had been advertising the finals of some big competition. She hadn't seen a lot of it but from what she had seen Brooke realized the object of the game was a fighting match was between little robot dolls controlled by their owner. Her curiosity had been aroused and sneaking onto Aimee's laptop she found out that the game was called Angelic Layer and the fight was between finalists Misaki Suzuhara and Ran Hidaka. Apparently it was a rerun of last year's tournament but it didn't make any difference to Brooke.

She had caught it at the last couple minutes. Brooke was disappointed she had missed so much of it but was glad at least she could see the outcome. That was one thing she avoided when looking up information, she wanted it to be like it was happening just as she was watching it.

The two little robots were fighting on what seemed to be the surface of a small volcano, both dangerously close as what looked like lava. The smaller pink and red angel appeared to be in danger of losing as the much taller angel was steadily beating her towards the lava. Brooke gripped the remote tightly as suddenly a loud rumble came from deep inside the volcano and within seconds thick gray smoke was billowing from the top.

The surface shook violently, leaving both angels to momentarily forget the fight and stare up at new occurrence. The smoke hit each one and the smaller one had more trouble keeping her balance. There was more noises issuing from somewhere inside the fake volcano and before anyone could realize what was going on large, molten rocks were flying from the spout followed by large blasts of lava.

"Watch out!" Brooke said without realizing she had said anything at all. She also hadn't realized that Aimee had come into the room also and had taken the spot next to her on the couch and was also watching intently.

The angel who looked like a gypsy, dressed in brown and blue, started to quickly back away from the apparent danger. Brooke wondered what the other one was going to do and soon her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened a bit. The pink angel was not running away from the new challenge but rushing towards it. She leapt into the air and with amazing skill leaped onto a top of one of the flying rocks. She spent less than half a second but Brooke was able to see that the bottoms of her boots were blackened a bit.

The angel repeated the process until she was at the top and standing on the only spot where lava wasn't spewing from. Brooke had been so focused on watching that angel that she wasn't concentrating on the other one who was now hesitantly following. The pink angel waited until the other reached where she was. At the spot where they were they each only had enough room for a few steps.

Brooke could see that the pink angel was having an easier time since she was smaller and could allow for moving room while the larger one could barely keep her balance. They fought for a minute more before started to buzz for each second that passed, there was only fifteen seconds left and each angel had the same amount of power left. Brooke wondered what would happen if the time ended and neither had lost anymore. Would it be like overtime?

She didn't have to wonder for much longer. Brooke was able to see what would happen before it happened. The gypsy angel stumbled only for a second and the smaller one saw it. With one swift kick the larger angel lost her balance and fell into the magma still inside the volcano. The second it happened the volcano disappeared and both angels were standing on a flat, glowing surface.

The pink angel stood up from the kicking position. The other one was lying down with her eyes closed and her clothes singed slightly. There was a seconds silence and the stadium erupted into furious cheers. The announcer was only just able to be heard over them even with his microphone.

"For the third year in a row the Miracle Player Misaki Suzuhara wi—"

"Hey!" Brooke exclaimed as the power went out. It snapped her out of her trance though. She hadn't been paying attention to the storm outside which had only gotten fiercer in the last ten minutes or so.

"A tree must have fallen and knocked over the power lines." Aimee said, looking out the window. Brooke jumped in shock.

"When did you get there?" she asked, placing her hand over her heart as it had begun to race.

"The whole time." Aimee said raising her eyebrow.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Wow." Brooke said slowly, amazed at her own stupidity. The light from a flashlight came from the doorway as their mother entered the room with Cobey trailing behind her quite white from fear.

"Aww poor little baby." Brooke laughed slightly and she opened her arms to him. The one and half-year-old eagerly climbed into her lap and Brooke wrapped her arms around him. Their mother lit the oil lamp and the room became filled with light although it made an unpleasant whirring noise.

"What's happened mom?" Aimee asked.

"The storm's gotten worse than expected. I could barely hear anything over the static but the warning system on the radio said that it's mandatory to stay inside. The roads are already flooded and many have lost power as we just have." she explained.

"See aren't you glad that I kept going Brooke?" Aimee teased slightly.

"Whatever, go pick up your Nobel already and get over it." Brooke said sarcastically, laughing slightly as she said it. Cobey, not knowing why she was laughing, copied her. Aimee shook her head with a large grin on her face.

"So what about dad?" Brooke asked as she gained composure of herself again.

"He's still at his office but everyone there will be fine. There's no real danger of anyone getting hurt unless they go outside." their mother responded one more.

"I bet you Shino would still leave to try and go to get something to eat." Brooke joked again.

"He better not. Of course in Japan it's sunny, or maybe its nighttime. I'm not sure." their mom mumbled more to herself than to the children.

"I don't think even he's that clueless." Aimee said, her grin only getting larger.

"Probably right." Brooke shrugged. Cobey then gave a huge yawn and Brooke giggled.

"He's tired already. It's only what, five?" Brooke said, slightly surprised.

"I'm actually pretty tired too." Aimee stated, the smile gone and she was stretching.

"How?" Brooke asked in amazement. She had been playing tennis for an hour and she was only a little tired.

"Dunno, just am. I think I'm going to take a nap."

"Nap!" Cobey recognized what Aimee said and jumped slightly to show that's what he wanted to do also.

"Fine." Brooke agreed.

"A small nap does sound nice." their mother agreed also.

"Okay then, nap time it is." Brooke said. Aimee gave her a little pat on the shoulder before standing up and walking over to the pile of blankets.

"Mom you can have the other couch." she told her, throwing her a blanket and then one at Brooke.

"Thank you honey." she said and she took the blanket and started to lie down. Brooke threw Aimee an extra pillow or two before lying down with Cobey next to her. She wrapped the blanket around both of them and once Aimee was settled she reached over to the lamp and turned it off, the room filled with darkness once more. The room was quiet only for the sound of the storm outside. Somehow as she lay there exhaustion crept into her and Brooke found herself asleep within seconds.


	2. Some Major Changes

**Chapter Two: **_**Some Major Changes**_

**Disclaimer: I do now own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me. **

**A/N: I'm so glad I've finally been able to get myself going again with writing fanfictions. I missed doing it more than I realized. **

**This chapter will probably be the one that will be changed the most, at least for the moment. I realized the old chapter two (from the original MTA) was way shorter than I was comfortable with. What got into my mind to put one up like that? I must have been sick or something. But Brooke will be more upset over the moving and won't seem so shallow. Obviously Aimee already knows about it beforehand this time around I've decided in the revision to make her feelings better known, so she might be a little depressed too. **

**To DayDreamer9: Thanks for being the first to review, and so quickly too. I must say I was quite shocked. I really appreciate it and I was able to fix the errors you pointed out. (Although I think Cobey's always been human, or at least I hope he was. )**

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"This site can't be serious. It probably hasn't been updated!" Brooke said a little louder than she should have.

"Brooke shush!" Aimee said in a whisper, giving her sister a slight hit on the shoulder. Brooke fell quiet and looked across the dimly-lighted room at her mother and then at Cobey. He was lying face down on the couch with his left arm dangling over the side. As Brooke raised her voice his brows had narrowed a bit and he pulled his dangling arm under the blanket. But as soon as it fell quiet again his face became relaxed again and he fell back into his deep sleep.

"Can you not be quiet? That's the fourth time you've almost woken him up and it's only been fifteen minutes," Aimee reprimanded her in a stern whisper.

"I'm sorry, I know, but none of these sites can be right." Brooke whispered sadly, glancing at the article headline of one of the many Angelic Layer sites she and Aimee had visited that morning.

"Brooke, eleven sites all updated within the past week or so cannot all be wrong. It's as you see it." Aimee told Brooke while sighing. This was the second time she had to repeat the little speech as it had become apparent Brooke had not heard the first time. Any glimmer of hope was wiped from Brooke's face and her shoulders dropped. She knew her sister was just as right as the title was.

"_Foreign Fans of Angelic Layer Must Wait a One Year Hold"_ it read, and all of the others had been similar. Each one had mentioned that Angelic Layer would have been introduced to countries other than Japan one month ago, but due to sudden experiments by the Angelic Layer team the introductions had been put off for a year.

"This is insanely depressing." Brooke muttered under her breath. Reluctantly she stood up straight, a ray of light peeking through the blinds and hitting her cheek. Looking in that direction she realized it must have been at least 10 o'clock. She and Aimee had gotten up around 8 and from the annoyed clicking noise she just heard Brooke guessed that the power on her laptop had been fully drained.

"Darn it, I didn't even get to check my mail." Brooke heard Aimee mumble angrily quietly from behind her. Brooke felt guilty for a moment because she had pushed her to look at so many different websites but she knew Aimee was just as interested as her, so the feeling passed.

"What should we do now?" Brooke whispered, turning back to face her sister. Aimee shut her laptop and looked up at the ceiling as she began to think. Brooke ran ideas through her mind also but most required some kind of technology than ran on electricity or something that would be impossible to do because of the damage the storm had done. During the moment of silence Brooke could have sworn that she had heard a faint ringing noise.

"Do you hear that?" she asked her sister. Aimee glanced at her and she listened intently in the silence.

"No, what did you hear?" she said after a minute passed. Brooke closed her eyes and listened once more, no longer hearing the sound anymore. She opened her eyes and shrugged.

"I don't know? It was almost like a song. It was probably just a bird outside or something." she finished and then began to gently bite the tip of her thumb's nail, it was a bit of a habit, "But it was a very specific melody. It was very familiar and now it's really beginning to bug me."

Brooke then moved her hand on top of her forehead, trying harder to think. She gave a little, annoyed sigh while looking around the room. She looked at her mother's face for a moment before it finally hit her.

"It was mom's ring tone! Dad must have been calling!" she said in almost a panic and with that she ran out of the room before Aimee could say a word. She could hear Brooke's hurried footsteps fade and there for what she guessed was two minutes only the birds outside made any noise.

"Kay, I'll ask her." Aimee heard Brooke say into the phone as she reappeared into the room. Aimee, who had been staring into space, turned her head and waited for the question to come. Brooke moved the phone away from her face and bent closer to her sister so that she could whisper without waking her mother and Cobey up while still having Aimee hear her.

"Dad's carpool fell through and he told me that he doesn't want to wake mom up, so he wants to know if you can go pick him up at the office."

"Sure thing." Aimee whispered back, moving her laptop off her lap and placing it on the ground next to the chair she was sitting in.

"She says she can. We'll be there as soon as we can. Kay, alright, see ya soon." Brooke finished up the phone call and closed the cell phone. She placed it on the ground near her mom before standing up and stretching.

"Hey Brooke?" Aimee whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I don't mind that you invited yourself to come but you are going to change right?"

"Of course!" Brooke responded too loudly and looking both irritated and amused.

"Brooke!" Aimee whispered furiously once more, looking at Cobey but it was their mother who woke up.

"Girls?" she asked groggily.

"Morning mom." Brooke replied as she bent over her, "Dad just called and asked Aimee and I to go and pick him up. So we'll be back in half an hour, that okay?"

The response she got was a head nod and a little groan before their mother turned and pulled the blanket closer around her body. Brooke smiled and stood up.

"Now I'm going to go change." Brooke said, teasing her sister as she walked past her as she headed towards her room, "And you might want to brush you teeth."

"Get going!" Aimee laughed, slapping Brooke somewhat hard on the back as she passed. She could hear Brooke's continued laugh until her bedroom door was shut.

Inside her room Brooke quickly threw off her pajamas and changed into a blue jean skirt and a green blouse with matching skimmers and a gold bracelet around her wrist. She brushed her hair again and put it up in a ponytail with a gold ribbon around the tie. Then she rushed into the bathroom where Aimee was indeed brushing her teeth and she did the same.

Aimee finished a minute before Brooke and as she was rinsing her mouth Aimee left the bathroom. Brooke knew she was going to get her keys which meant she was ready to leave. She cleaned up as fast as she could and then flew back into her room. Normally she didn't wear makeup seeing as she usually didn't need it, but to Brooke going to her father's office building gave her a good reason too. She quickly applied some mascara and some brown eye shadow and just a bit of lip gloss. Brooke wanted to see if there was anything else she could do but she heard Aimee calling her from the front door. Brooke sighed and grabbed her purse before turning off the light and leaving her room.

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"Your father is up in the second meeting room with the other members of his section. It's on the seventh floor. Unfortunately the power is still out so you will have to take the stairs. But after you reach the hall it's the fifth door on the right." the secretary at the front desk said after Brooke and Aimee had reached their dad's office building.

"Thank you very much." Aimee said politely and she and Brooke started towards the stairs. Brooke opened the door and as soon as it swung shut after Aimee, Brooke gave out a long sigh.

"Why couldn't he have come down to meet us? Seven floors is insane." Brooke complained.

"Be glad it wasn't the top floor. Seven is nothing compared to ninety-three." Aimee retorted matter-of-factly, "Plus if dad had come down to meet us you putting on that makeup would have been a waste. You wouldn't have been able to see your little _Prince Brandy_."

"Don't make fun of Brandon's name." Brooke said sternly and blushing slightly. Brandon Moore was the son of the second-in-charge in her dad's section, her father being first. To Aimee it was common knowledge that Brooke liked Brandon and, desperate at that point to have new ways to torture her sister, she went online to research what his name meant. She found one of the meanings was 'prince'. So she shortened up his name, added the meaning to the front of it, and had had the ultimate weapon for annoying her sister to no ends.

"I think it suits him well." Aimee laughed with a fake sincerity.

"No, it's just rude to call him that!" Brooke growled, her blush growing a deeper red. Aimee couldn't see this as Brooke was in front of her and the stairway was only dimly lit, but she knew.

"If he doesn't know I'm calling him that there's no real insult. And what are you going to do, tell him that I'm calling him that? Talk about embarrassing." Aimee laughed harder, shaking her head.

"Can you just stop it?!" Brooke pleaded now. She could feel her face burning with embarrassment and her heart was pounding loudly in her ears.

"No way, it's too much fun!" Aimee argued happily, catching a quick glimpse at Brooke's bright red face as the stairs twisted in a different direction as they had reached the second floor. As she saw her sister's face she felt a mixture of guilt and a sickening euphoria. Normally she would have stopped her taunting when Brooke asked like she had, but with the own stress and worries she was under taking it out on someone else helped to ease it before it became unbearable.

"You're twisted!" Brooke almost shouted and then started to take two steps at a time. Aimee matched her.

"You know what's twisted? You and Brandon. I don't see why you like him in the first place, he's not the cutest guy around and his personality is kind of blah. Sure he's athletic and he's got more sense then most guys have but it doesn't make him any better than that Jason kid you liked three years ago. Is this relationship going to turn out like that? You liked Jason for a long time but when you met Brandon you changed your mind in a second and started going after him. You'll probably meet another guy within a month and do the same thing." Aimee just kept on talking.

"No!"

"Are you sure?" Aimee giggled in a teasing way. She expected more retorts from Brooke but to her surprise she stopped walking and turned around to face her.

"Why do you have to be such a jerk?" she said loudly, her voice echoing up the staircase. Her face was a deep scarlet and her eyes were narrowed deeply in anger. The smile slid off Aimee's face a bit but not completely. She waited for Brooke to continue yelling at her but she was surprised as Brooke turned on her heel and ran up the stairs.

"Aww c'mon Brookie don't be like that." Aimee shouted up after her sister who had amazingly already reached the next landing and turned to continue going up.

"Shut up!" Brooke yelled down, only stopping for a second to lean over the railing to stick her tongue out at her sister. Aimee returned it and then proceeded to run after her sister.

Brooke panted hard as she took amazingly took three stairs at a time. There was already a good floor between her and Aimee but she felt as if she wasn't going fast enough. She knew she was overreacting as Aimee had teased her so many times before about Brandon but she was already in a bad mood that day.

She stopped for a second as she reached the fifth floor. By the echoes below her Aimee was still some distance from her. Brooke knew she had a second to rest and leaned against the railing and took long, deep breaths. Just taking those three floors at that speed had taken out most of her anger and she was thinking a bit more logically than she was two minutes ago. Still, she didn't want to talk to Aimee at the moment and, disappointed, she put her foot on the next step. She took them one at a time now but still went as fast as she could.

As she went she wondered what was wrong with Aimee that day. Normally they were on good terms and they arguments were usually just jokes, they very rarely got genuinely angry. If one of them had asked the other to stop they way Brooke had the other had always complied, with the exception that Aimee always used. An idea dawned on Brooke and she slowed down considerably. She could hear Aimee's footsteps and they were getting closer. Brooke took the last ten steps or so to the landing where the door was that led to the sixth floor.

She was nervous about what she was going to say but the fact she thought she had figured out was now bugging her. As she saw the top of Aimee's brown hair Brooke took a long breath and let it out slowly. Aimee's expression changed as she turned around the corner and saw Brooke was waiting for her.

"What's the matter?" she asked a bit sourly and Brooke hesitated for a second.

"I should be asking that. Something's wrong with you." she spoke with a bit of a stutter.

"Where'd you get that idea?" Aimee sighed after a moment of pause. She stuck her hands in her pockets and took the last steps so that she was on the landing with Brooke.

"From the fact that you were trying to get me angry." Brooke said with her voice growing more confident. In the moment Aimee had paused she had seen it all. Her doubts of her being wrong were gone. Aimee didn't say anything but looked at Brooke with a quizzical look so Brooke just continued on.

"We never fight that furiously and mean it. The only time you continued to tease me after I ask you to stop if when I'm going to be told something bad. It was the first month after I had met Jason and it was Valentine's Day so he had given me a present. I was so happy that when I got home I wanted to tell you all about it. But when I was trying to tell you about how I felt all you did was tease me about it. I left the room in a rage not knowing something worse had happened. It was the night Grandpa Hanzo had died in the fire at his apartment. When mom and dad told me after I felt ten times worse then I had before. It hurt so much that I couldn't cry, so I just sat there and acted like I accepted it. Mom and dad left me alone to give me some time to myself, but you didn't. As soon as they left the room you came right in and started teasing me again about Jason. I was begging you to stop but you didn't and eventually all the pain welled up and I started to cry. Your attitude then changed and you pulled me into a hug. You had done something similar a few times before but that was the time when I realized there was a motive behind it." Brooke said solemnly, looking down at the ground.

"And that is?" Aimee asked, folding her arms and Brooke looked up at her.

"You know me well. You know that when something bad happens I keep to myself and that usually in the end I am able to work it out and move on. But there have been times when I couldn't and that's when you make me angry. You force it out of me before it has the chance to hurt me anymore." Brooke took a breath and looked Aimee straight in the eye, "But something's wrong and it is hurting you. So now you're reversing it so that you can vent out your feelings in a similar way."

"What is wrong with our school's curriculum that is making kids so smart today?" Aimee said after a long silence. Brooke couldn't help but smile a bit despite the seriousness in the air.

"So what is wrong then?" Brooke asked, "Is it what you said you couldn't tell me yesterday?"

"Well…" Aimee mumbled as her gaze fell to the floor. There was an awkward moment of silence before a loud thump came from behind the door. Aimee gasped loudly and Brooke gave a little yell and jumped backward.

"Is someone out there? My hands are too full, can you open the door please?" a muffled voice came from behind the door. Brooke reached for the handle and quickly opened it so that both she and Aimee could see a boy around Brooke's age hidden behind two boxes he was carrying and a large bag that he looked like he was struggling to hold onto. Brooke instantly reached forward and grabbed the top box and Aimee took the bag out of the boy's hand. The boy sighed and now that his face was visible Brooke could see it was Brandon, but she knew that from the second she heard his voice asking for help.

"Thanks, uh, Brooke? Why are you here?" Brandon asked as he shifted the box in his hands and then closed the door with his foot after he walked out onto the landing. Brooke waited until they started to walk up the stairs before she answered.

"We're here to pick up my dad since his carpool fell through. He wasn't waiting downstairs so we were told we have to go get him." she explained, "But what's with the boxes?"

"Well I came over here after school like I normally do to help out and I got stuck here with everyone else during the storm. Today my father asked me to get some stuff from his office on the sixth floor which explains the boxes and the bag."

"I see." Brooke replied quietly, as she looked at the back of his blonde head. Then she looked at Aimee who was walking next to her. Brooke could tell she looked sad but as soon as she realized Brooke was looking at her she smiled and winked. Despite this encouraging sign the fake happiness didn't fool her a bit. It was silent after that until they had reached the seventh floor and had walked into the hallway when the lights suddenly flickered on.

"Finally." Brooke sighed with relief.

"Yeah, it is about time." Brandon agreed, "When the power first went out the emergency lights weren't working for some reason and we had no idea where a flashlight was. Luckily I have a little one on my keychain so I went to the utility closet to get some real ones."

"Good thing you were here then." Brooke complimented. She was glad she was behind Brandon as her blush that had disappeared started to come back a little.

"Yeah but I'm sure they would have figured out something eventually even without me here." Brandon shrugged his shoulders. Brooke thought of something to say back to him but at the same moment she opened her mouth to speak a door nearby flew open. A couple of men started to walk out and the three teenagers watched them. One of the men walking out caught Brandon's eye and walked over to him.

"Thanks a lot Brandon. You can put those things on the table and we'll work on them tomorrow. Brooke, Aimee thank you for helping him." Brandon's father said.

"No problem Mr. Moore." Brooke smiled and he tipped his hat at her.

"I'll be heading towards the car."

"I'll be right down then." Brandon said to his father and then after he started walking away Brandon motioned with his head for Brooke and Aimee to follow him. They headed into the room that all the men had left, with the exception of Brooke and Aimee's father.

"Hey dad!" Brooke smiled brightly as she set down her box next to the one Brandon had set down. Their dad had been leaning over a binder full of papers and seemed to have not noticed the three who had walked in. Even when Brooke called out to him he still did not take notice and just continued to mumble and run his finger down the paper he was looking at.

"Dad!" Brooke said louder and this caught his attention. He looked up and when he saw his daughters he smiled.

"Oh sorry. Didn't think you would be here so quickly. Hello." he said slightly disorganized. Brooke sighed but smiled at the same time.

"Hey I'll see you guys later." Brandon said and Brooke turned her attention from her father back to him.

"That's fine. I'll see you later Brandon." she smiled at him once again, forcing her blush from being too noticeable. Brandon gave a slight wave and started towards the door.

"See ya Prince Brandy." Aimee mumbled under her breath.

"Huh?" Brandon said as he turned back around. Brooke panicked and gave Aimee a jab in the stomach with her elbow which, luckily, Brandon didn't notice because he was still turning around.

"Nothing, she said nothing." Brooke responded as she gave him a nervous smile.

"Sure." Brandon said slowly and confused before turning away and walking out the door.

"Aimee!" Brooke said softly but sternly to her laughing sister. Aimee had one hand on the table to support herself both from the new pain in her side and her laughter, which she was suppressing with her other hand.

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it. It's so much fun." she said through her giggles.

"Please, I don't want to start that again." Brooke rolled her eyes.

"Start what again?" their father's voice broke through the girl's conversation and Brooke jumped a little because in that brief minute she had forgotten that he was even in the room.

"I was just teasing her again." Aimee admitted only half-truthfully because what had happened on the staircase had been more than teasing. Brooke knew that the anger was gone so she felt no reason to bring anything up or o try and get Aimee in trouble for what she had done.

"Should you do that?" their father asked as he looked up from the binder. He wasn't being reprimanding but he said it in a way that was both serious and gentle at the same time.

"No." Aimee admitted again, a bit of guilt lingering on her voice. Mr. Miyoko smiled and then straightened up as he closed the binder. He then took a bag that was lying on the floor and put it inside.

"I'm all ready to go. Would you like me to drive Aimee?" he offered.

"Why not?" Aimee said as she took out her keys and tossed them over to her father. He caught them with his open hand and then stuck them in his pocket. He made a motion with his head and Brooke caught the signal to head out the door. Aimee followed her and their dad turned off the light and locked the door behind them as they headed over to the elevator. The doors slid open and the three walked inside, Mr. Miyoko pressing the lobby button. The doors closed and the elevator started on its way down. Brooke leaned against the wall and listened for a second to the tacky music playing in the background before her father spoke up.

"Is your mother and Cobey alright?"

"Yup, they're both fine." Brooke responded happily.

"I can tell you're fine too Brooke." he smiled, "But…Aimee…"

"Yeah?" Aimee asked. She had been looking at the wall at the opposite direction and when she turned to face her father Brooke saw the same pain she had seen before, but it was only for a fleeting moment before it disappeared again. Mr. Miyoko looked at her for a second and then took a glance at Brooke before he shook his head and took back his words.

"Oh it's nothing." he smiled down at her but Aimee wasn't convinced and neither was Brooke. Aimee knew what her father was going to say to her but she knew he hadn't told Brooke seeing as he never had the chance yet. She knew it was probably today that he was going to tell her, her couldn't put it off much longer.

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"We're home!" Mr. Miyoko said loudly as he, Brooke, and Aimee entered the house about fifteen or so minutes later. Mr. Miyoko set the bag he was carrying down by the door and as soon as he could hear the little footsteps he found Cobey latching onto his leg.

"Daddy!" he said with a large smile on his face.

"Hey there." Mr. Miyoko laughed as he bent over and picked up his son, gave him a kiss on the forehead, and then proceeded to walk in the room where his wife was cleaning up from the night before.

"I'm going to go put my bag away." Brooke told Aimee as their dad walked away.

"Sure." Aimee responded with a shrug of her shoulders. Brooke gave Aimee a pat on the back without really knowing why she did it and then headed into her room. It was always a bit painful walking in and seeing the yellow pain on the walls and the powder blue border that ran all around the room with a floral design. When she had been born she had been given Aimee's room while Aimee had been moved to a larger room upstairs. She had loved her room when she was younger but now she was desperate to change it. The design was very childish and Brooke was almost embarrassed to bring her friends in her room. Recently she had been asking her parents about changing it but they continued to tell her that there was no need to do anything with it now.

Brooke went over to her dresser and placed her purse on it. Looking in the mirror she was deciding if she should take off her makeup. It felt weird to have it on since she almost never wore unless she knew she was going someplace where Brandon was. But she chose to leave it on and to actually try and wear it a bit more often. She liked how her eyes sparkled a bit more and how her complexion seemed more even.

Brooke took off her skimmers because they hurt her feet since they had no arch support. To replace them she grabbed her pink slippers from under her bed and sighed happily at the soft relief they gave her. She sat on the side of her bed and just thought in the silence. Mostly her thoughts were mostly about different ways Brandon would ask her to be her girlfriend or different things they would do when they did start going out. After a couple minutes she laid down and folded her arms behind her head. After one completely outlandish thought she knew would never happen she laughed at how ridiculous she was being. Brooke sat up and as soon as she did she heard her father calling for her.

"Coming!" she answered back, sitting up. Brooke fixed one of her slippers that had fallen off and then rushed out of the room, figuring he needed her help with something. Brooke hadn't intended on staying in her room for about fifteen minutes but she be very easily swept away with her thoughts. She was wondering what her parents needed help with but as she entered the room where the rest of her family she could tell that something was out of place. She stopped in the doorway and looked at her parents first and then Aimee. On her face was the same pained expression only much worse.

"What's wrong?" she asked instantly, looking back to her parents with more intensity in her eyes.

"Brooke, come and sit down." Her mother said as she pointed to the brown armchair Aimee had been sitting in earlier that morning. It made her nervous to walk over to the chair and sit down because it would bring her right in front of her parents. As she settled into the chair she could tell that the conversation was going to be very serious.

"Did someone die?" Brooke asked. She had felt the same tension in the air the night she had been told her grandfather had died.

"No." her mother responded and Brooke breathed a silent sigh of relief, but her worries were only lessened by the slightest bit.

"Then what's wrong?" Brooke repeated. She looked her mother in the eye but she turned her head away and when she looked at her father he couldn't look into her eyes either.

"Brooke, we're…" her mother started out hesitantly, but she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Pregnant?" Brooke asked curiously. If her mother was indeed pregnant again she wondered why it would be so difficult to tell her. But her mother shook her head and Brooke fell silent once more.

"No, we are not planning on having any more children." her mother added on.

"Then what in the world is wrong?" Brooke repeated the question one more time. This time she was absolutely determined to get an answer, she just wanted them to spit it out already.

"We are going…." her father took a stab at it but he could not tell her daughter the news any more than his wife could.

"To what?!" Brooke asked loudly as she was rather irritated at the moment.

"We're moving to Japan!" Aimee responded just as loudly. Brooke fell quiet and looked back at her parents who were now looking at the floor.

"What?" Brooke asked as if she hadn't heard what her sister had said at all.

"We are moving to Japan." Aimee replied slower.

"No we're not." Brooke scoffed.

"Yes we are." Aimee retorted. Her voice was calm but at the same time it held a tone that said she did not want to deal with this at the moment. Brooke sensed this but chose to ignore because she did not want to believe it.

"No we're not."

"Yes we are."

"No we're not."

"Yes we are." Aimee said slower and a bit angrily.

"No we're not." Brooke said in the same tone, but everyone could see that something in her facial expression had changed and Aimee did not bother to repeat her line. Brooke looked like she was about to snap, and she did.

"No we're not!" she yelled loudly. Cobey, who was sitting on his mother's lap, placed his hands over his ears and turned his head away from the source of the noise. The rest of the family looked at her and they could all see the pools of tears welling up in her eyes, but no one could find a word to say. Brooke wanted more than anything for one of them to agree with her and say it was just a joke, but she knew it wasn't and no one was going to say those words of comfort. She would feel guilty about it later but Brooke looked at her parents with a look of deep disgust and loathing as she stood there in the stillness, shaking with pain and rage, her face flushed but her cheeks bright red.

As she saw no one was going to say anything she exhaled angrily before quickly turning on her heel and running out of the room. Only her father made the slightest motion with his arm to stop her but even if he had made a real effort his daughter was running away too fast for him to grab her. They heard Brooke's door slam and she jumped onto her bed face down, pulling her pillow over her head and crying furiously.


	3. My Happy New Life?

**Chapter Three: **_**My Happy New Life?**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me. **

**A/N: I'm gonna go with a totally different layout for the next couple of chapters or so. Referencing back to the old MTA I've found the third chapter (like the second) way too short for my taste and it did not contain any really vital information. With the old fourth chapter I went through it and found the whole angel creation process just took too long and got quite boring. So I am going to shorten that up and add it to the end of the third chapter. The fifth and sixth chapters will also be edited and conjoined and then (for the moment) the positions of the chapters should head back to normal. It takes out two chapters but I'd rather go for quality not quantity.**

**To DayDreamer9: Trust me, I took NO insult whatsoever when you said the old MTA was sloppy. I quite agree with you. It's incredibly painful to look back at the old chapters for reference and I can't believe my writing was ever that bad. Part of the sucky-ness probably comes from the fact I was in 7****th**** grade when I wrote it, and I hadn't seen much of the manga or the anime and did not do a lot of real research aside from fanfictions. So yeah, that version- /shudder/**

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Brooke took her carry-on from under the seat in front of her with a sigh. After what felt like a twenty-hour flight she was quite glad to be able to stand up and walk around. At the same time she was incredibly sad because she was no longer home. Three months had passed since she had found out her family was moving to Japan because her father's company was transferring him. Brooke had thought she would have adjusted to the idea a little as time passed, and she had the week before, but now she felt even worse than she had before.

So in an agitated way she slung her bag over her shoulder and stuffed herself between two other people as she tried to get in the walkway. She automatically said sorry but she couldn't wait to get off the plane. Brooke just felt so hurt and conflicted that everything anyone else did was instantly wrong and it irked her. The person in front of her who sneezed was being too loud, the person slightly in the aisle trying to get their bag from the top compartment was completely in the way, and the flight attendant smiling politely was acting so optimistic that it made Brooke want to yell at her.

Even though this war was going on inside of her, Brooke's face was completely calm. She was trying to deal with it all although she knew she couldn't. Normally Aimee would have helped her out but she was still trying to deal with it herself. In the back of her mind Brooke knew she should not try to act so selfish and make her parent's worry anymore and that was the main reason she was forcing herself to keep a straight face.

She reached the sitting area near the walkway that headed towards the plane and realized she was the first to get off. She walked past the ticket booth and sat down on one of the seats. The sky outside was a deep blue and littered with stars, dark clouds were scattered all over. Brooke stared out the window and took a slip of paper, holding it tightly in her hand. It contained all of the e-mails and phone numbers of her friends back in England. She knew each by heart but she found if she wrote them down it made her feel just a little bit closer to them. Sitting there and hearing Japanese being spewed out from the intercom and from the people around her made her feel very lonely.

"Brooke come on." a voice called to her in English, and it took a moment for Brooke it realize it was Aimee. Turning her head she saw the rest of her family standing just past the ticket booth and looking at her. Reluctantly she stuffed the paper back in her pocket and slung her bag back over her shoulder before walking slowly over to her family. Leaving the airport would be even worse than arriving. It would take away all hopes she had that somehow she could get on a plane that headed back home. As far she was concerned, England would always be her home, and Japan could never measure up.

She was able to cheer herself up a bit by mentally telling herself that her parents would see the fact that Japan was a rotten city and within a week they would move back to their perfect home. As she got into the rental car waiting for them in the parking lot her last insane fantasy of going back to Europe disappeared. The car's engine then roared and as it left the airport parking lot Brooke found that she could not even look out the window. Instead she stared at her hands and twiddled the tips of her fingers.

As they got closer to their new house Brooke couldn't stop her eyes from closing. Maybe if she didn't see the house it wouldn't be there. Brooke was almost starting to irritate herself from how in denial she was, but she couldn't help it.

She couldn't help the fact that her father was transferred. She couldn't help the fact that she now had to live in Japan. She couldn't help the fact that her life had been completely turned upside-down. She couldn't help the fact that right before she told Brandon she was moving he told her that he really liked one of the girls at his school. Brooke couldn't help the fact that she had yelled at him saying she was sorry that he chose the wrong girl and then yelled at him the fact that she was moving. Brooke couldn't help the fact that she then ran away from him and had never answered his calls later that night.

She couldn't even open her eyes as she felt the car slow down and turned right. It slowed down even more and then as it came to an almost complete stop it turned to the left. Then it stopped completely and Brooke heard the trunk pop open before turning the car off. The others started to get out but it was only after Aimee gave Brooke a hard shake did she dare to open her eyes. It felt like a short drive, but it more around twenty minutes. This being the case it took Brooke's eyes a few seconds to adjust so that she was able to see more than blurry shapes. The first thing she saw was what was going to be her new house.

It had two stories like her old house but Brooke could see that it was a lot bigger. They were in a small suburb so the yard wasn't as big but for the first time seeing the house snuggled a bit closer to the others actually made it feel comforting. As she got out of the car and headed towards the trunk, Brooke took glances back at the house every few seconds. Despite wanting to go home more than anything else she thought that living in such a nice couldn't be all that bad.

She took her suitcase out of the trunk and was volunteered by Aimee to take Cobey's seeing as she hadn't helped her on the plane when Cobey had gone into a quick tantrum. Brooke didn't object seeing as Cobey was only two and his suitcase was half the size of hers. She was the second to enter the house following her father. He turned on the lights and Brooke's eyes couldn't take enough of the scene in.

The house was so clean. There was new carpet on the floor and Brooke could faintly smell paint. The only thing that was missing was the furniture and this confused Brooke.

"Mom, where's the furniture?" Brooke asked her mother as soon as she walked into the house.

"The company is going to bring it in soon. So we'll get it but it won't be set up until tomorrow." her mother responded as she set down her suitcase and looked at her watch.

"How are we going to sleep?"

"I thought I told you earlier about this and said to try and get sleep on the plane. Weren't you listening?" Brooke's mother gave her a look.

"Uh yeah, my mind kind of just blanked for a moment." Brooke lied. She supposed her mother had told her but she had been sulking in silence so anything her mother told her never really reached Brooke's ears.

"Well it's too late to worry if you heard me or not. Your father and I are going to wait for the men who are going to help us. Aimee said she would help us too. But I want you to get the blankets and pillow I packed in my suitcase and take Cobey to sleep in his room."

"Sure. But what kind of company comes and helps move heavy furniture at 9:30 at night?" Brooke asked.

"The expensive one, but your father's company is going to pay for it. Just like they said they would give us the money to decorate your rooms."

"Decorate how?" Brooke asked slowly, not sure if she heard right. She would be able to decorate her own room?

"New carpet, paint, and those types of things. I told you that earlier too." her mother gave her look.

"Okay, obviously I wasn't listening. I'll go and take Cobey now." Brooke held up her hands.

"Want to see your room first?" Aimee asked as she came down from the second story, "I just went to see mine and it's awesome."

"Sure." Brooke nodded, her heart beating a bit faster. No more blinding yellow paint was the only thing she could of for that split second. Aimee waved her hand and Brooke raced her up the stairs. At the top Aimee took her to the left and pointed out each room.

"That's Cobey room, the bathroom, storage space." she said as she pointed first to a room on the left, one across from his, and one further down the hallway. The hallway then turned to the left and about another five feet it down that way it turned to the left for a few more feet before there was a door.

"This is your room. Mine's down at the other end in the same space. Well go in." Aimee said as she saw Brooke was hesitating to go in. Brooke looked at Aimee and then back at the door before finally turning the handle and pushing the door in. She found the switch and a small lamp dimly lit the large room. The floor was made of a bright hazel color wood, the walls pure white.

To her left was an alcove the perfect size for bed and it had three steps leading up to it. A little further pass the bed on the same way was a door, which Aimee told Brooke was her own bathroom. In the middle of the wall opposite of the door was a larger alcove. Brooke saw that it had enough room to put her desk there and the green beanbag she had gotten for her last birthday. The wall opposite the wall with bed was slanted as it was the front of the house. There was a single window placed on it.

"This is amazing." Brooke said in awe.

"And all you get to see." Aimee said as she turned off the lights, grabbed Brooke's arm, and shut the door behind them, "You have to go watch Cobey now."

"Yeah, yeah." Brooke said and she started to head back down the hallway. On their way heading back to the stairs the two girls found their mom with an armful of blankets and a pillow with Cobey ever-faithfully trailing behind his mother.

"Here you go Brooke. Just try to get him to go to sleep and stay up for a bit in case he wakes us. If he doesn't and you are able to find someway to go to sleep you are more than welcome to." Mrs. Miyoko explained. Brooke nodded once again and took the blankets and pillow in one arm and Cobey's hand in her open on. They were standing right next to Cobey's room so Mrs. Miyoko opened the door for her. It was about the same size as Brooke's old room and a plain square.

"He's only two." Mrs. Miyoko said before she turned on the light and then shut the door. Brooke let go of Cobey's hand and walked into the middle of the room. She placed two folded blankets on the floor for a makeshift mattress. She placed the pillow on the pile and then Cobey on top of that. Then after covering him up with the last two smaller blankets she went over to the light switch and turned it off. Brooke could hear Cobey squirming uncomfortably, he was still afraid of the dark. So Brooke then crossed the room and opened the blinds on the window slightly and they let in enough light to put Cobey's fears to rest.

Then she sat up against the wall under the window. Brooke watched Cobey move around for a few minutes and then not even ten minutes later she could hear slow breathing which meant he was asleep. She reached above her and pulled down the blinds and the room became more comfortable for her. Five minutes later she heard the doorbell ring and soft thumping noises coming from downstairs, and she easily able to guess it was the men with the furniture. The new noises did wake up Cobey and Brooke was very glad for this.

She pulled her legs up to her chest and folded her arms on top of her knees. With a heavy sigh she rested her head against her arms and stared at the wall. The excitement of seeing her new room and house had already worn off and the deep sadness reappeared. It made her heart feel so empty that Brooke felt like it wasn't there at all. Her hands gripped her shirt tightly and she closed her eyes. She could feel exhaustion quickly creeping into her, and despite the fact that her back hurt from sitting like she was, Brooke fell asleep.

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Brooke's attitude didn't improve much over the next three days until her mother pulled in the Piffle Princess parking lot. They had been out shopping for their rooms and neither Brooke nor Aimee was expecting this detour. They had talked about Angelic Layer a bit over the last couple days but they couldn't believe their mother had paid much attention to how badly they both wanted an angel.

Needless to say they both flew out of the car as soon as it stopped and ran as fast as they could into the store. Just liked when she first saw her new house Brooke's eyes couldn't take in enough of the fabulous sights and colors. This was much more than anything she could have ever imagined. For the first time in a long while Brooke had forgotten all about the move and was smiling as if nothing had changed in her life.

She walked quickly up and down the rows, eventually passing Aimee and then they both went into the angel egg aisle. Brooke couldn't grab her box fast enough and as she felt the box in her hands she held it tightly and smiled down at it. Then she rushed a few more aisles over where there was a large amount of cloth available for the angel's clothes. Brooke had a decently defined idea of what she wanted her angel to look like and took very little time to take what she needed. On the other side of the shelf were the angel cords of every color and design.

Brooke searched through them and found a pure white one, the cord thin like a ribbon and the little gold detail at each end was a small star. She knew it would fit her design perfectly. Then she became hypnotized with the styles of angel wings available. Brooke chose ones that were pure white and like angel wings of the old stories. Before she went on she made sure to grab a shopping basket because the box was getting heavy and she almost dropped one of her rolls of cloth. Brooke knew she still needed a setup computer and grabbed one of those next when an aisle near it caught her eye.

It was a row with one side filled with different types of weapons and the other filled with voice chips, both of which Brooke had no idea existed. Aimee was already looking at the voices having finished getting her other things just a bit quicker than Brooke. Brooke rushed into the row and quickly found a tiny tennis racket with AL printed on the face. She spun around on her heel to see the whole self dedicated to angel voices. Under each serial number for each voice there was a button you could press and a sample of the voice saying "Angelic Layer."

She had to press many buttons before she found the right voice for her. It was feminine but at the same time it sounded strong and fierce. She found a little box with the same serial number and placed it in her basket. As she walked up to the front her mother was just starting to help Aimee put her things on the counter. Brooke went over to them and soon everything was paid for. But the ride back to the house seemed longer than the flight from England to Japan.

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About half an hour later Brooke and Aimee were in sitting on the floor in Brooke's room. Brooke had just finished placing the hair she had cut on her angel's head and was now placing her angel between the two orange rings. She read each screen carefully and made sure she typed in just what she wanted her angel to be like. Since Hikaru had been the first angel she had ever seen she wanted her angel to be similar. So in the end she chose a smaller angel with a large emphasis on speed and a decent amount on balance and strength. Then she chose her name and eye color.

When she finished she took her Kura out of the cylinder and held her tightly. Then Brooke moved her sewing kit ready and took out her cloth. Aimee had already been working on her angel's outfit for about fifteen minutes and Brooke was determined to catch up. Luckily she was a much better at sewing than Aimee, and some time later and with a couple pricks of her finger with the needle did Brooke finally finish.

Brooke dressed Kura and admired her angel with a large smile. She had soft wavy, sky blue hair that reached her shoulder. Brooke had tied the angel cord around her head like a headband and the little stars ended up right around Kura's hips, right where Brooke wanted them. Kura was wearing a white, sleeveless, turtleneck dress where the pleats at the end of the dress reached down to her mid calves. The midsection of the dress was blue and separating the blue from the white was a line of gold.

Kura wore white gloves that reached a bit father than her elbows and lined with gold. Kura wore blue sneakers and white socks that reached past her knees. Brooke had placed the wings on Kura's back and with her violet eyes Brooke knew her look was completed. Remembering she still had to put in her voice chip Brooke took the small box and opened it. She placed Kura back in the cylinder and placed the chip from inside the box in a slot on the side of the computer. Pressing the buttons the box told her to there was a small whirring noise and when it stopped Brooke knew the voice had been installed into her angel. Brooke took Kura out once more and looked over at Aimee, who had just finished putting her outfit on her angel.

Aimee's angel had silky, long, black hair tied up Odango style with a braid coming down from each bun. The angel wore a black dress that reached her knees and had a wavy neckline and short puffed sleeves. She had a thick white ribbon tied around her middle and a black angel cord similar to Brooke's tied in the middle of the ribbon. It merged with the bow in the back and when Brooke moved her head she could see instead of stars the angel cord had normal golden balls at the end. The angel wore white socks likes Kura's but on her feet, much to Brooke's surprise, she wore a pair of black roller skates. Also around her wrists she had two white ribbons tied daintily which Brooke would maker her movement seem more graceful.

Brooke was just about to ask Aimee what she named her angel when she heard the doorbell ring from downstairs. Both Brooke and Aimee grew confused looks on their faces, they didn't know anyone was coming. Brooke placed Kura on her bed and Aimee did the same with her angel. They both rushed downstairs, stopping on the last one. Brooke looked around and didn't see her parents anywhere. The doorbell ran again.

"Brooke you go answer it." Aimee said in a whisper, giving Brooke a slight push with the tip of her finger.

"You're such a baby." Brooke whispered back sarcastically. She walked over to the door and took a deep breath. She had no idea who it could be, they didn't know anyone around the neighborhood yet , but Brooke guessed it might be one of their neighbors coming to say hello.

Her hand shook a bit as she took the handle and turned it, finally opening the door. She came face to face with someone she hadn't seen in about two years.

"Hey Brooke!" he said happily.

"Shino!" Brooke said in shock and excitement as she and her older brother hugged tightly.


	4. The First Battle

**Chapter Four: _The First Battle_**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me. **

**A/N: Not much to say. I'll be updating sooner now that my personal life has settled down. It has been crazy for quite awhile. I changed Hiromi's name (Aimee's angel in the old MTA). If you also compare it to the old MTA you'll also see some other minor changes. Like Aya's last name and her mom's occupation. Also Conan has a bit of a different role. So read on to see what Hiromi's new name is and to watch Brooke's first fight.**

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"So how are you doing Brookie?" Shinosuke Miyoko asked his little sister as he released her from the hug, but they still held each other's arms.

"I'm fine, but what are you doing here?" Brooke asked excitedly.

"Well I came to visit you guys of course. It's easier to see you when you only live fifteen minutes away instead of all the way over in London."

"I guess that makes sense. Oh, come inside!" Brooke told him, realizing that he was still standing in the door. Shino walked inside and closed the door behind him. He looked around at the house and ran his hand through his dark brown hair.

"This place looks a lot better with furniture." he said and put his hand down next to his side.

"You've been here before?" Brooke asked him.

"Yeah. When mom and dad came here two months ago to look for houses I recommended it to them."

"That's interesting, they didn't tell us that." Aimee said.

"Aimee!" Shino said suddenly as if he hadn't noticed her, but this had been their joke for a long time.

"What's up Shino?" Aimee rolled her eyes with a smile and the two gave a quick hug.

"You guys have grown up a lot in two years. Brooke we still have the same eyes but now you actually look like a girl." Shino stated with a sarcastic smile on his face.

"Nyaah!" Brooke mumbled as she stuck her tongue out at him. In that second Shino reached out and held it for a second. Brooke quickly grabbed his wrist and yanked his arm away.

"Eww! I hate it when you do that! Your hand tastes disgusting!" Brooke exclaimed, faking a cough as if she was choking.

"If you stopped sticking your tongue out at people I wouldn't have to do it. You've gotten lazy about that since I left two years and three months ago."

"Counting time like always. But actually she hasn't really done it recently." Aimee interrupted with a smile, "I think she's been waiting for you. It's now your special thing."

"Well that makes me feel happy." Shino joked. Then he looked around the room once more before turning back to Brooke and Aimee. Brooke had straightened up from her fake coughing position and could see from the change of Shino's expression that he was more serious now.

"So where are mom and dad?" he asked. Brooke and Aimee looked at each other and shrugged.

"Dunno. They were here half an hour ago. I guess they went out somewhere with Cobey. Would have been nice if they had told us though." Brooke mumbled at the end.

"Is something wrong?" Aimee started as soon as Brooke finished. Both Brooke and Shino looked at her. There was a moment of silence before Shino decided to answer.

"Nah. Just some bad timing."

"What's in the bag?" Aimee asked. She nodded her head towards a brown paper bag that Brooke hadn't noticed before. She guessed that he had set it down when he had come inside.

"It's just some things from work." Shino said indifferently but Brooke could tell he was hiding something.

"Hmm really?" Brooke said as if she was genuinely interested in what kind of things Shino had for work instead of trying to figure out what he was keeping from them.

"Would you mind if I see what you need for work?" Brooke asked as she started past Shino for the bag.

Shino reacted quickly and dove for the bag. Brooke followed his suit and they both ended up grabbing the bag's handle at the same time. Shino tried pulling it out of Brooke's hands but she made sure that she didn't let go no matter what. Shino jerked it to his side in another attempt to get the bag free. It didn't work as Brooke went to the side along with the bag. This resulted in Shino and Brooke spinning around in a circle both determined to hang onto the bag. After going around in a circle a couple more times Brooke was getting dizzy and slipping a little as she was wearing slippers and Shino hadn't taken off his shoes yet.

To stop the spinning she tried to pull the bag in the opposite direction. Much to her displeasure it did not work. She just ended up tripping over the back of her slipper and let go of the bag in the process of keeping her balance. When she stood up straight she saw Shino was holding the bag above his head where Brooke had no hopes of reaching. Not giving up Brooke went at it again but her hand only reached Shino's elbow. Now was the first time in a long time she cursed herself for being a little short.

"Ha!" Shino yelled with a triumphant smile on his face. Brooke was going to stick his tongue out at him but decided at that distance it wouldn't be a smart thing to do. Shino had insanely sharp reflexes.

"Just let me see what's in there!" Brooke demanded but she was smiling too as it had became a game. She jumped at it once more. She couldn't even get half as far as Shino put his hand on her shoulder and kept from jumping more than a couple inches.

"No way!" Shino laughed, shaking the bag slightly from side to side to taunt her, "You need to grow a little more."

Brooke clicked her tongue and took one last jump at the bag. Shino didn't bother to block her but he was surprised when the bag was torn out of his hands. Aimee had taken a few quick steps forward and Shino had been so distracted by Brooke that he didn't even notice her coming. Brooke almost fell over as she landed on Aimee's foot but Shino caught her around the middle and stood her up straight. Aimee bent over in pain and Brooke took the opportunity to take the bag from her hands. Shino knew he had lost the battle and sighed looking over at Aimee.

"You could never reach that height before." he commented.

"I grew a little more." Aimee said with a bit of pain in her voice but she was recovering quickly.

"Shino what's with all of the toys?" Brooke asked as she opened the bag and looked inside of it. Shino shifted his gaze over towards her and let out a small sigh. He then began to rub the back of his neck.

"Well, they're for Cobey." he said. Although Brooke didn't catch it there he sounded a bit hesitant about it.

"Is that all? You didn't have to hide them you know. Or did you want it to be a big surprise or something?"

"No, not really." Shino replied.

"I don't see what was so wrong about us seeing it then." Brooke mumbled to herself more than Shino.

"Sorry." Shino apologized. Brooke was about to say there was no need to but Aimee spoke up first.

"That's right. You've never actually met Cobey face to face have you? You've only seen the pictures mom and dad have sent you."

"Right." Shino admitted and let his hand drop back to his side.

"So you're nervous about meeting him then? That's why you were so protective of the bag. You didn't want us to see that?" Brooke guessed and Shino nodded a confirmation. To both of their surprise Aimee laughed. Even as they stared at her she didn't stop.

"Oh Shino! You didn't have to worry about that. Cobey going to love you. When he could finally understand we were coming to Japan all he asked mom was when he could meet you." she said when she could finally get a string of audible words out.

"He did?" Brooke and Shino asked at the same time. Aimee rolled her eyes.

"You weren't paying attention to anything were you Brooke?"

"No. I was too busy sulking in my cloud of dark depression the whole couple months." Brooke said mostly seriously but Shino and Aimee took it as a joke and they both started laughing. Brooke twitched in annoyance but chose to let it pass since the comment had gotten Shino to laugh. Still, she smiled to hide the pain that was still there. Shino, just as sharp as Brooke was, saw this and stopped laughing.

"So you really think he'll be excited to see me?" Shino asked as he changed the subject back to Cobey.

"Duh." Aimee responded, "When he's older he won't even remember a time he didn't know you. Nothing to stress over."

"Right, thanks. So have you guys created your angels yet?" Shino asked them and Brooke and Aimee looked at him with a stare of complete surprise.

"How'd you know that we got angels?" Brooke asked him.

"Mom e-mailed me yesterday saying that she was going to take you to buy them."

"Did she say anything about going wherever they are now?"

"If she had told me that I wouldn't have come. I wanted to try and get here when you were all home but I planned it poorly. Probably should have called first."

"Probably." Aimee shrugged. After she finished her one word sentence the room went silent. Brooke was going to say something but saw that Shino was thinking and she chose to keep her mouth shut. She figured it would be best to let him speak first. But what he said next really surprised her.

"Do you guys want to go and practice?"

"Practice?" Brooke said excitedly but also as if she could believe it, "You'd take us?"

"Well sure. I know Aimee can drive but you guys don't know your way around here. And I figure since we haven't seen each other in two years it's the least I can do for you."

"But what if mom, dad, and Cobey come back before we do?" Aimee questioned.

"We'll leave a note or something!" Brooke exclaimed with a big smile, "I'm going to go get my angel!"

At that she set the bag down and turned on her heel, running up the stairs as fast as she could go. Aimee and Shino chuckled before Aimee started heading up after her. Before Aimee could even reach Brooke's room she found her already passing her as she went back downstairs. Brooke showed Shino her angel while they waited for Aimee to come down with hers. Within another minute she was back with them and then they headed out the door. Within a couple seconds Brooke flew back in to write the note explaining where they were going and grabbed Shino's bag of toys before she soared right back out the door.

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Fifteen minutes later Shino's car pulled into the Piffle Princess parking lot. Then for the second time that day Brooke and Aimee entered the store with Shino trailing behind them. It was a bit busier than it had been earlier so Brooke stayed close to her older siblings. She also kept a good grip on Kura so in case someone bumped into her she wouldn't go flying into the air. Brooke thought it would be terrible if that happened.

After walking into the store Brooke and Aimee stopped as they didn't know where they were supposed to be going. Shino pointed out the direction they needed to go and then started to lead the way when Brooke and Aimee couldn't figure out where exactly he wanted them to go. As they were walking Brooke looked over at the angel in Aimee's hands.

"Hey, you never told me what you named your angel." she stated.

"Kumiko." Aimee told her with a smile. Brooke smiled back.

"It suits her."

"Thanks."

"Kumiko's a lot taller than Kura." Brooke pointed out.

"Yeah. I gave her more of an emphasis on balance, followed by strength and then speed." Aimee explained.

"That's good. You should do well with those stats." complimented Brooke.

"Well they're good enough to beat you at least." Aimee bragged jokingly.

"Ha! Very funny, but I'm not the compulsive liar in the family." Brooke taunted.

"I don't lie! I just omit information."

"Right, silly me." Brooke rolled her eyes with a wide grin on her face.

"The practice layers are over here," Shino interrupted as he pointed towards a bunch of humming white layers, "And over there is the registration desk."

"We should hurry up and get registered. It doesn't look like there are a lot of layers left." Aimee told Brooke. Brooke nodded back in agreement and they both sped walked over to the counter. Shino leaned against the wall and waited for his sisters to return. After three minutes he tried to look over to the counter but with all of the people in front of his way he couldn't even get a glimpse. Then he started looking at his watch every 20 seconds. He knew that there hadn't been that much of a line and that it shouldn't be taking this long. Then when started to wonder if they didn't have enough money he spotted them walking back. They were also talking about something that interested him very much.

"He was insanely hot!"

"Plus he's an exchange student from London who is going to our school here. So you're lucky because you'll already know somebody. Plus you have a chance at him since actually in your grade."

"Yes, terribly sorry about that. You do have to admit though that he is so cute."

"And his name in Conan."

"Which does amplify his hotness."

"Yes it does."

"So did you just talk to this hot guy or did you get a layer?" Shino asked just a bit annoyed. He knew Aimee was senior in high school and he couldn't stop her talking like that, but that protective brother inside thought that Brooke was still too young to be even looking at guys. Yet he knew she was perfectly old enough.

"Yeah we got one. Layer 12." Brooke told him, ignoring his attitude as she had seen it many times before.

"I think it's the one over in the middle back, next to the big window." Aimee said to Brooke before starting to walk over there. Brooke trailed right behind her with Shino following too. Aimee was right about where the layer was. A steady stream of golden sunlight glittered past the layer and the view was amazing. But at that moment Brooke was more interested in playing Angelic layer for the first time.

She sat on one side of the layer and Aimee was across from her. She plugged in the headset and then put it on. It took her a brief second to find the on button but once she pressed it she heard the noise of the wings on the side going up. It also beeped and she could see different screens.

"I'm guessing you guys don't have an angel entry yet?" Shino asked. Both Brooke and Aimee shook their heads no.

"We only created them about an hour ago and we're just practicing." Aimee reminded him.

"Right, we'll you can just toss them in then." he instructed.

Brooke hesitated and looked down at Kura who she was holding tightly in her hands. She didn't know why but she was almost scared to through her in. But she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes tightly for a moment. Then Brooke opened them again and tossed Kura in. Unfortunately she and Aimee got their timing wrong and also messed up how far they threw their angels in. So it ended up that Kura and Kumiko hit each other in mid-air and fell on the layer before they even had a chance to open their eyes. Shino chuckled as quietly as possible because he saw the embarrassment on his sisters' faces.

Brooke let out a long breath of air and tried to forget about the burning in her cheeks. She looked at Kura and saw her eyes were open but the expression on her face was blank. Brooke thought about her getting up and her arm started to move. Then Brooke realized it wouldn't be possible to get Kura up until Kumiko got off her.

"Aimee could you move your angel please?"

"I'm trying. Give me a minute." Aimee said to her impatiently. She stared intensely at Kumiko but she did not move very far.

"Come on." Aimee said under her breath. It was just barely loud enough for Brooke to hear.

Kumiko pushed herself up and off Kura but with a lot of difficulty. Without the weight on her Brooke was able to get Kura up like Kumiko. She tried to stand her up but Kura couldn't keep her footing and tumbled forward, catching Kumiko's shoulders for support. Brooke tried to get her to stand once more and she succeeded, but Kura's legs were bent at what looked like an awkward angle and she was swaying dangerously.

"You need to concentrate more. Don't feel stupid because you can't move her perfectly. Everyone starts out this way. You need to get your mind off how bad you're doing and focus on how well you want to be." Shino instructed as he pulled up and extra chair and sat down. Brooke nodded.

She stared at Kura and barely even blinked as she concentrated harder. Kura stood up very slowly, but was able to keep her footing. Kumiko was standing up too but swayed back and forth a bit. Kura took a wobbly step forward towards her and then another. On the third step she almost tripped again but on the fourth step she wasn't as unsteady as she had been before. The fifth and sixth were smoother in movement and by the fifteenth step she was walking normally.

However when Brooke tried to make Kura run she started to fall down again. The same thing happened with Kumiko when she tried it moments later. Brooke sighed and slouched down in her chair. This was a lot harder than she ever thought. She looked up at the ceiling and focused on a single spot. She was already feeling defeated. Aimee was taking side glances over at her. Kumiko had already started to run a bit better, but when Brooke had drawn her attention away Kura had sat herself down and was staring at the ceiling the same way Brooke was. Aimee was wondering why Brooke was giving up so easily, usually she was determined to work as hard as she needed to.

Shinosuke was also watching her. He folded his arms and shook his head a little. He wanted to know what was her problem. Did she really think she was going to be able to master Angelic Layer within her first practice? He was about to say something when he felt a presence behind him, or more like two presences. Shino turned around to see a boy around Aimee's age with blonde hair and hazel eyes staring at the layer where Kura and Kumiko were. He couldn't see the other person standing next to him but he could see it was a girl about Brooke's age with jet black hair.

The blonde turned his head to look at Shino. Shino stared back at him and then the blonde turned his head back to watch the angels. Shino narrowed his eyes a little. He didn't know what was with him.

"Oh hello Conan-kun." Aimee said, noticing him. Conan nodded and started to smile but took a quick glance at the girl next to him and it disappeared. Then suddenly the girl stepped forward next to the layer. Brooke stopped looking at the ceiling to meet the girl's eyes. They were a jade green and slightly wider than normal. Her black hair was cut short and held back by a headband the same color as her eyes. The girl wore a violet dress and black heels.

"I'm Aya Kuwata" the girl introduced herself.

"Brooke Miyoko." Brooke mumbled, not quite sure what to say. The girl smiled but shivers went down Brooke's spine. It was a smile that made her feel very nervous.

"Battle me." Aya said suddenly and Brooke's mind went blank.

"W-what?"

"Battle me." Aya repeated slower with the smile still on her face.

"B-but I've only started playing four minutes ago." Brooke said quietly.

"The best Deus, Misaki Suzuhara, won her first match without three seconds of practice. It will be good for you."

"B-but…" Brooke trailed off. Aya smiled wider and looked over at Aimee. Within seconds Aimee snatched Kumiko out of the layer and was taking her headset off.

"Wait, um…" Brooke mumbled. Shino began to stand up to try and intervene but Conan put his arm in front of him to stop him from moving. Their eyes met again and then Shino stopped and sat back down. There was a look in Conan's eyes that was apologetic but stern too.

Aya took the head set and put in on her head. She looked down as she did this but when she turned it on she looked up and stared right at Brooke. Then she threw her angel into the layer. Brooke wondered why she hadn't done an angel entry but she was more focused on standing Kura up and then gazed at Aya's angel.

The angel's skin was an olive color and her long hair was a dark green but it looked almost black like the color of her eyes. She wore a green dress that looked like it was made out of dragon skin. On her wrists and ankles she wore golden bracelets. For shoes she wore slippers made out of the same material as her dress. Brooke also noticed that her angel cord was shaped like a thin dragon tail and she had dragon wings. The angel in stature wasn't much larger than Kura.

"Angelic fight between Deus Aya Kuwata-san and angel Shizuko against Deus Brooke Miyoko-san and angel Kura. Begin." Conan spoke as the referee.

Aya wasted no time in attacking and shot like a bullet towards Kura. Brooke panicked as she saw her speed. Shizuko was a lot faster than she imagined. Brooke didn't even have time to dodge completely. Shizuko attacked with a crescent kick from the side and Kura tried to jump backwards, but Shizuko caught her in the side and sent Kura tumbling. Brooke watched her stats drop by a considerable amount and the screen on her headset beeped and showed where Kura had been hurt. She gritted her teeth and looked over at Shizuko and Aya. Aya was sitting calmly and smiling and Shizuko was standing up straight and waiting for Kura.

Brooke struggled to get Kura up and as she stood she tottered dangerously. Brooke took a deep breath and tried to get Kura to run. The attempt was no better than the first time she had tried. Kura met the layer hard after tripping over her own feet. Brooke could have sworn she heard Aya giggle but she had decided not to concentrate on her anymore. As Kura lay on the ground Shizuko had began to rush forward again. Within an instinctive feeling of defense Brooke rolled Kura out of the way as Shizuko brought her heel down hard where Kura's head had been. Brooke let out a loud sigh and stood Kura up once again.

Aya had given her no time to do it this time and went after Kura as fast as she could. She hit her with a quick jab punch and then with a hook. Kura was able to dodge the next two punches she tried but wasn't able to avoid another kick Shizuko sent. Getting angry Brooke finally started to have Kura attack. She was now able to run decently and went after Shizuko with a roundhouse. Shizuko blocked the attack easily and pushed Kura back on the ground. Kura stopped herself from falling all the way and jumped back up.

She tried once more with jab. For a moment it looked like it would hit but then Shizuko shot up in the air. She was flying way above where Kura could hit. Her wings had expanded and cast a shadow over her. Brooke stared at her in awe for a moment, envying how good she was. Then she wondered what Aya was going to do next, but all Shizuko did was hover in the air. She stared down at Kura and gave an almost demonic smile. It scared Brooke but she thought Aya's smile was worse. Then Shizuko made a motion with her hand signaling Kura to follow her. Brooke thought Aya had to be messing around with her. When she looked over at her, however, she saw that Aya was being completely serious.

Kura first tried standing and flapping her wings. It got her nowhere. Then she jumped and then tried. She was able to move a couple inches higher but she could not go higher or even maintain the height she was at. Kura's feet touched back down on the layer and then she looked up at Shizuko with a cold stare. She turned around and ran back a distance. Then she faced the way she had been before. She got into a sprinting position and then took off. Kura made a huge leap and Brooke imagined her flapping her wings as hard as she could. At first it appeared to have worked.

Kura flew up a great distance and turned to Shizuko who only shifted so she could see her. Brooke started to go after her but found focusing that attacking and flying at the same time was too difficult to keep up. Kura's punch ended up hitting the space beneath Shizuko as she plunged down to the ground. Brooke gasped and tried to get Kura stable again but she was falling too fast for Brooke to catch her. Then suddenly Shizuko caught the arm Kura had punched with and stopped her from falling. Brooke stopped breathing for a second and then felt grateful towards Aya as she put Kura safely back on the ground.

Brooke knew that this was still a fight and wasn't going to hesitate anymore. As soon as she could Kura went after Shizuko, but as she did Brooke could tell Aya expected it. She sent a hook with her left arm and when Shizuko caught her fist Kura tried the same thing with her right hand. Just as soon as Shizuko caught her left fist Kura did a strong front kick and hit Shizuko right in her stomach. She was sent backwards but avoided falling by doing a quick back flip leading into a couple more. Then she did one more big one and spun a couple times in the air before landing back down some distance away from Kura. Brooke felt an incredible sense of accomplishment that she had finally hit her. She could feel her old determination coming back.

With this new feeling Kura charged towards Shizuko a lot faster than she had before. She went after her with a kick and then a punch, both of which Shizuko dodged as she moved around Kura. So now they had switched spots. Brooke saw what Aya was doing too late. Shizuko hit Kura with a solid uppercut that tossed her up into the air. Into the air and out of the layer. Her first battle was over in about four minutes. But Brooke was glad. Even though she lost she felt much more confident and she didn't want to give up at all.

She took off her headset and gently picked Kura up off the floor.

"Thank you." she whispered silently. Then she looked over at Aya who had taken her headset off and was sitting with Shizuko in her arms. Now that the battle was over Brooke felt Aya had a whole new personality. She emitted a much warmer presence and her smile was genuine and sincere. Brooke went over to her and held out her hand.

"Thank you Kuwata-san." she spoke. She had a feeling Aya had forced her to fight because she knew Brooke had needed a rival to get her going. And when Aya shook her hand she could tell they were very much alike.

"Call me Aya-chan." Aya smiled.

"Then you can call me Brooke-chan." Brooke smiled back. Then they let go of each other's hands. Aya stood up and nodded at Brooke.

"I need to leave now Brooke-chan. But I'll see you at school?" she asked. Brooke knew a look of confusion had come upon her face when Aya's expression changed.

"You are going to Natsumi Jr. High right?" Aya asked and Brooke nodded her head confusedly.

"How did you know?"

"My mom is the principal. I saw the new student list and you were on it."

"That makes sense." Brooke smiled again, "I'm glad I will know you Aya-chan. I was feeling nervous that I wouldn't know anyone."

"Don't worry about it. Most people at school are decent. If you want I'll introduce you to my friends too."

"I'd like that."

"Kuwata-san your father is calling from me. He says he is by the front door and ready to leave." Conan interrupted. His cell phone was open and he was covering the speaker with his hand.

"Does your dad work here?" Brooke questioned Aya.

"Yup, he's the manager for most of the day."

"That's really cool."

"Mm-hmm. Well I'll see you later. I'll have Conan-kun give you my number." Aya said as she bowed goodbye. As she stood up straight to leave Brooke gave her one last smile and waved goodbye as she turned around and left.

"I'll go get you her number then." Conan said with a smile, his serious side leaving. And with that he left and went back behind the counter and through the employee door.

"So what now?" Brooke asked, turning back to Aimee and Shino who had been completely silent through the whole thing.

"Well we have spent only ten minutes here. I think practice a bit more." Aimee said.

"Guess so. If I want to beat Aya someday I think I need to work more than three minutes."

"True." Aimee agreed. With that she took back her chair and replaced Kumiko on the layer as Brooke did the same with Kura. Shino leaned back in his chair once more and watched with a smile while Kumiko ran around on the layer and Kura successfully jumped into the air and started to fly around.


	5. What a Jerk

**Chapter Five: What a Jerk**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belong to me.**

**A/N: Shocker! Another large gap between chapters! I'm truly sorry, because I feel really bad that I can't keep a decent update schedule. No excuses this time except for the fact that I'm just lazy when it comes to writing. Not that I don't work hard on each chapter, it's the time between each chapter where I get lazy. My ultimate downfall I guess.**

**I spent a lot of time deciding whether or not to change Jacques's name. When I first created his character I only chose that name because I thought it sounded cool, even though it's very generic when people think of French male names and such. Since I'm taking French I went through the list of names the males had chosen to be called by. After a long decision on whether or not Mamadou, Yannik, or Robespierre was good I just settled on Jacques. It suits him well.**

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"Brooke-chan slow down!" Aya yelled right into Brooke's ear. Brooke flinched and leant back as she slowed the bicycle down. Throughout the ride Aya was continually forgetting that she was standing on the pegs right behind her. Brooke had quickly figured out that Aya was nervous, probably because she had told her a vivid description of what it would be like if she fell off, and in result the ride diminishing was her hearing. She was smiling though, even if she wasn't sure why.

"Aya-chan if you want me to ever hear again you should stop yelling~" Brooke told her in a sing-song voice. She was in such a good mood that it scared her. Ever since she had met Aya her disposition had been increasingly positive. Maybe it was finally because she had a friend who she could vent to. In their last couple weeks of break the two had spent a lot of time together. Brooke felt as close to her as she did to her friends back home, which was strange because those friendships had taken a long time to build.

"Sorry." Aya responded with a laugh. She loosened her fixed grip on Brooke's shoulder, much to her relief. Just to mess around with her Brooke started to sway the bike from side to side, seeing what would happen. Aya gasped at first and held on tighter, but once she realized Brooke was just messing with her she laughed and relaxed her hold.

"I promise I'll stop." Brooke giggled as she held the bike steady.

"Good! We're here anyway." Aya told her, pointing ahead. It was true, because they were already at the school. It was the first day of Brooke's second week at Natsumi Jr. High. She still felt out of place there, but she was slowly getting used to it. Everyone she had met so far had been nice to her. The change was so different from what she was used to that it felt almost awkward being there. Luckily she and Aya were in the same class and, of course, right next to each other.

Brooke locked her bike up and then she and Aya walked into the school to switch their shoes. Heading up the stairs to their classroom they took out their angels. Aya had come over one day with lots of cloth courtesy of her father and they had spent the rest of the day making clothes for Kura and Shizuko. At one point they made clothing for the other's angel, so Brooke decided to make something that didn't suit Shizuko at all. It was a light pink dress complete with a massive amount of frills. Aya said she wouldn't even let it touch Shizuko, but laughed at it all the same. Right then Kura was wearing a jean skirt and black boots. She had on a black shirt and blue camisole on top. Brooke had even found a matching ribbon to tie in her hair. Aya was getting back at her now by refusing to let her see Shizuko.

"Let me see her. Pleeeeeeeeease." Brooke begged.

"Nope." Aya said, shielding Shizuko.

"Oh come on Aya-chan. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease." Brooke said as she dragged 'please' out for an insanely long time.

"Noooooooooooooooooo." Aya retorted, but she couldn't help laughing while she did.

"Why? Is she wearing that dress I made for her?"

"Maybe." Aya said with the perfect amount of sarcasm.

"Really?" Brooke responded in the same tone, sounding fake-hopeful.

"Course not. Would you put that thing on Kura?"

"If you paid me." Brooke admitted, "It'd look good on some angel though."

Aya just laughed.

"Hey." Brooke rolled her eyes at her and gave her a slight punch in the arm. They opened the door to their classroom and they found a couple other classmates there. After saying their hellos Brooke and Aya wandered over to their seats. Brooke took her bag off her shoulder and placed Kura on her desk. As soon as she did someone glomped onto her back, draping their arms over her shoulders.

"Brooke-chan~, good morning~" the person said.

"Jacques-kun good morning." Aya said to him.

"Good morning Aya-chan~" Jacques responded.

"You seem to be doing well."

"Yup~"

"Jacques-kun would you mind getting off?" Brooke asked with a sigh, yet she also had a smile on. This type of hello from him was becoming normal. When Aya had introduced them on the first time he had wasted no time giving her a hug. At first it had been confusing, then on the next couple of days it was irritating, and now she didn't really care.

"Nope." Jacques said back, holding his arms tighter.

"Why is that?" Brooke questioned.

"Because you didn't say good morning."

"Good morning Jacques-kun." Brooke said, and expecting him to let go, took a step forward. Jacques still did not let go.

"Jacques-kun!"

"Mmn, it doesn't count when I told you to say it."

"Then what do you want me to do then?"

"I don't know."

"Jacques-kun!!" Brooke laughed as she struggled to get away. Still he only held on tighter so that Brooke couldn't even move her arms. Then suddenly he let go, and because she had been pulling forward so much Brooke almost tripped. She caught onto the back of a nearby chair and steadied herself. Looking around she saw Jacques bending over and clutching his right foot. Right next to him was Aya with a suspiciously innocent smile on her face.

"Aya-chan, that was mean." Jacques said with a pout on his face. Aya just looked away and shrugged.

"Brooke-chan tell Aya-chan to say sorry."

"The first thing I hear when I walk in here are the voices of you idiot's, great." A new voice suddenly interrupted. The smile slid off all three of their faces and Jacques stood up, looking annoyed. The boy did not say anything, but sat down at his seat, which happened to be right in front of Brooke's. Up to this point Brooke had never spoken to him, nor had he acknowledged her at all. He had just been that guy in front of her.

"There's no need to be so rude Renjiro-san. If we're being annoying you can just say so." Aya spoke up, and placed her hands on her hips. Renjiro, who had been taking things out of his bag, stopped.

"Don't call me Renjiro-san. It's Suzushima-san to you idiot Kuwata."

"Don't talk to her like that." Jacques said sternly. His fists were clutched tightly and his face became even angrier with every word Renjiro spoke.

"I'll talk to anyone anyway I want, and there's nothing you can do to tell me otherwise Frenchie." Renjiro said coldly, shifting only slightly towards them yet he was still facing forwards. A look of pure disgust appeared on Jacques face and he took step toward the blonde. Brooke placed a hand on his shoulder and Jacques stopped moving. Their eyes caught after a moment of silence he got the message and stepped back. By this point though everyone else was listening and watching nervously, unsure of what was going to happen. However a girl near the door said that the teacher was coming, and everyone started towards their seat.

"Ignore him." Aya whispered to Jacques as she moved.

"Yeah." Jacques whispered back. Brooke watched him go to his seat closer to the front before sliding into her own. Brooke felt uncomfortable sitting behind Renjiro now, so she turned her face towards Aya. However Aya was resting her head in her hands and looking forward with stiff look on her face. The teacher then walked into the room. He stopped walking as he entered, wondering why everyone was already sitting and being so silent. Slightly confused he continued to his desk and sat down.

Brooke reached out for Kura so she could put her away. Renjiro put his hands behind his head and stretched back farther than any person normally would. This resulted in Kura almost being knocked off the desk, but because Brooke's hands were already there she got a hold of her.

"Hey." Brooke whispered defensively.

"What?" Renjiro said coldly, turning his head towards her. Brooke locked her eyes with his brown ones for just a second, and his gaze was so hateful that Brooke recoiled.

"N-nothing." Brooke muttered.

"Hmn." Renjiro huffed before turning back around and placing his arms on the desk. Brooke stared at the back of his head for a second before placing Kura in her bag. She felt Aya's gaze on her now so she looked back at her. Aya gave her an encouraging smile, which Brooke returned, but she still felt upset. It was turning into a very bad, and very long, day.

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"I'm telling you Aimee, he's a jerk!" Brooke said loudly, holding onto the back of the passenger's seat where Aimee was sitting. It was after school now and for most of the ride Brooke had been complaining about Renjiro Suzushima. For the rest of the day he had gone out of his way to irritate her, Aya, and Jacques.

"I still don't think he's as bad as your making him sound." Aimee said, turning her head to look back at Brooke. Brooke frowned. She had spent the past five minutes trying to convince her of how horrible Renjiro was. However Aimee kept insisting that Brooke was exaggerating.

"He tripped Jacques-kun on purpose. How is that not bad? He didn't even get caught!"

"It was probably an accident."

"I sit right behind him. I saw him purposely stick his bag out on purpose right when Jacques-kun was walking towards Aya-chan and me. He even laughed after he fell."

"I'm sorry Brooke, but I still thinking you're being too hard on him."

"I'm not being hard on him. He's a jerk. I wish he would go somewhere else." Brooke said as she folded her arms and leaned back into the seat.

"Brooke." Aimee said curtly.

"Aimee." Brooke said the same way.

"Aimee, Brooke, would you guys mind stopping? I don't want to listen to an argument right now." Shino, who was driving, interrupted.

"Okay." Brooke and Aimee said simultaneously. Brooke turned her head and looked out through the window. At the moment Shino was taking them to Piffle Princess before he had to head back to work. Aya had spent the weeks training them, and Brooke had learned that Aya could be very tough. It had worked though because Brooke was getting very good, or so she thought. Today a small tournament was being held, and if she was able to win her battle she would be able to get her angel card. They were meeting Aya and Jacques there, and Aimee had mentioned that Conan was working there today.

It had grown silent in the car, and almost awkward. Shino turned on the radio to try and calm the atmosphere down. Luckily they were almost at Piffle anyway. Brooke hopped out of the car, gave Shino a quick peck on the cheek, and ran into the store. She waited for Aimee once she got in the store, but then quickly searched for Aya and Jacques. She couldn't see them on the first floor she Brooke made her way over to the stairs and as soon as she got to the top she spotted them. They were standing in line for the registration. With Aimee following her Brooke sneaked into line with them.

"I didn't know you were going to participate Aya-chan. You said you were just going to watch." Brooke said. Aya smiled at her.

"I guess I did, but then once I got here I decided that I wanted to join." she shrugged. Brooke noticed that Aya was holding Shizuko in her hands, and wearing her normal clothes. She never did find out what she had been wearing earlier. Brooke had almost forgotten Kura's battle clothes when she left this morning.

"What'll happen if we end up fighting each other. We both know I can't beat you." Brooke said, but hated that she had to admit that she knew she would lose against Aya.

"It's okay. Since we're standing right next to each other in line they probably won't have us battle each other."

"Right." Brooke said slowly as she was not entirely convinced. She decided to look out of the corner of her eyes and listen to Jacques and Aimee who were talking about none other than Renjiro.

"Brooke told me he tripped you."

"Yeah, the jerk."

"Are you sure it wasn't an accident?"

"Of course I'm sure. Plus Suzushima-san has been like this forever, at least that's how he's acted ever since I've known him. No one likes him because he thinks he's better than everyone else. He also gets called down to the office a lot so I assume he's always making trouble." Jacques finished with a scowl on his face. Aimee looked a lot more convinced now, and Brooke felt successful that she had finally gotten it. After the line moved up Brooke and Aya turned to face them.

"Are you ready to fight Jacques-kun?" Brooke asked him. His face turned lighter once she switched the topic from Renjiro. Jacques nodded and held out his angel.

"Ah, you made a new outfit for Nightshade-chan." Brooke said cheerfully.

"Yeah, I was bad at sewing when I first created her and it was falling apart, so I made a new one. I finished last night." Jacques told her, letting Brooke hold his angel. Nightshade had pale skin, paler than any angel Brooke had seen so far. She had long black hair which reached to about her hips. She wore a black sleeveless dress that reached to her knees. There were layers upon layers of lace underneath the dress material, so the dress poofed out. Her black shoes had ribbons that criss-crossed and tied in a bow at the end just below her knees.

"It's very pretty." Brooke said as she handed Nightshade back, "Nightshade-chan reminds me on China dolls. Her skin is so pale and pretty."

"Thank you." Jacques said before pointing behind Brooke, "Brooke-chan."

The line had moved up while she wasn't looking and the lady behind the counter was looking at her, waiting for her to step up. Blushing a little, Brooke stepped up to the counter and registered herself for a match. Conan was working the computer next to the lady and gave Brooke a smile after she was done. Brooke waited with Aya while Jacques and Aimee got registered. Brooke looked down at the paper she had been it given- it read 24. Searching around for a clock Brooke finally found it on the wall behind her. The time-limit for the registration was almost over, then the match-ups would be announced.

The seven minutes went very slowly for her before a worker finally came on the speaker and announced it was time to start. On the wall across from where she, Aimee, Aya, and Jacques stood was a large television. Normally it was on a news channel or showing Angelic Layer tournaments, but now it was blank. It flashed on and showed the paring of the numbers. Brooke's eyes moved rapidly as she searched for her number. It was somewhere in the middle, and she was paired with whoever had 33. Brooke was just glad she didn't have to face off against her friends. She always did worse when she did.

"I'm against 12." Aya read.

"37 for me." Jacques said.

"And I have 4." Aimee said.

"33." Brooke said as the others looked at her to answer. She looked around to see if she could see anybody holding 33. Then much to her chagrin she spotted a person who she really didn't want to see at the moment. That person happened to be named Renjiro Suzushima, and it could go without saying what number he was holding. Brooke groaned loudly and put her hand over her face. It felt like he was following her wherever she went. The school say had been bad enough, and now he was about to ruin what was supposed to have been a fun time.

"Brooke what's wrong?" Aimee asked her. Brooke pointed towards Renjiro and everyone instantly got what she was upset about as his number card was very visible. Brooke sighed loudly.

"Here Brooke-chan you can switch with me. I won't mind beating him to a pulp." Jacques said, holding out his card. Aya pulled his hand back.

"You can't do that. Your name and angel information is registered with your number. You don't really look like a Brooke-chan." Aya told him.

"I'm sorry Brooke-chan." Jacques sighed. Brooke shook her head.

"No it's okay. I'll be fine facing him." she told him, although it was a lie. She would rather face Aya and know she would lose, than fight against a person like Renjiro. She couldn't see his angel, but could imagine what it might look like. Never in a million years would Brooke have guessed that he was interested in Angelic Layer. With the attitude he gave off one would assume he would die before ever even stepping into a Piffle Princess store. Brooke winced slightly when the worker announced what layer each group would be playing at. After some sympathetic looks from Aya and Jacques, Brooke starting walking towards her assigned layer. Renjiro was already there, and once he saw her heading in his directions his brows furrowed. It was the first time Brooke got a good look of his face. He was very good looking, but it didn't matter because of the way he acted.

"Ah hell." Brooke heard him mutter as she got closer. Normally when someone acted like that to her Brooke got very angry and would start talking back, but when it came to him Brooke couldn't help but withdraw. Maybe it was because she knew whatever she did would end badly. Renjiro did not say anything more, but sat down. Brooke hesitated and sat down across from him, holding Kura tightly in her lap. There was no way she was going to be able to win like this. Renjiro was staring straight at her, but Brooke couldn't even look in his direction.

She could feel herself turning paler, and each heartbeat echoed louder and louder in her ears until she thought it would just pop. Brooke quietly tapped her heels together and couldn't help but hold her breath. The sign across the street had never been so interesting, as Brooke stared at it as if it was a thing of wonder. Even as she continued to avoid his gaze, she could still feel Renjiro looking straight at her. Her throat went dry, and Brooke rubbed her palms on her skirt as they began to sweat. Renjiro did not move. Other matches had already started and she was wondering where their judge was. Even if they magically appear in one second, Brooke felt it would not be quick enough. Renjiro's gaze was so penetrating that it felt like he was reading her mind. Sitting there in the silence made her feel so exposed.

"U-um is there something-"

"Shut up." Renjiro interrupted her as Brooke started to speak. Unable to fight back she closed her mouth tight and looked away again. Luckily their judge finally came over to them.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I had to finish something behind the counter. You may got ahead and put on the sets and place your angels in the layer. If you want to do an angel entry you may, but you do not need to." she said. Brooke could tell she was a very ditzy person as she didn't even notice the tense atmosphere between them. It was that or she was choosing to ignore it.

Now Brooke turned red as she had forgotten to create an angel entry. Aya had made her practice so hard that it continually skipped her mind. Brooke quickly put Kura in the layer. Kura's eyes flew open and she shifted into a waiting position. Renjiro opened his bag and took out his angel, although Brooke couldn't see it until he put it on the layer. She felt better that he didn't do an entry either. As she looked at his angel for a moment she almost laughed because it didn't suit him at all. The angel was about the same height at Kura with short brown hair and lime green eyes. She was wearing a yellow and white dress with an illegal amount of frills, and in her hair was a matching large yellow bow. She wore yellow and white striped stocking with yellow mary-janes. The angel looked very delicate and it almost looked like it was sad.

"Match with Deus Brooke Miyoko and angel Kura against Deus Renjiro Suzushima and angel Tanpopo. Angelic Fight!" the judge said enthusiastically.

Brooke expected Renjiro to have Tanpopo start right away, but she didn't move an inch. Kura hesitated before starting to run at her at almost her full speed, arm pulling back for a punch. She rocketed across the layer, yet Tanpopo stayed where she was. Even as Kura was inches away from she just looked straight ahead with the sad look plastered on her face. Brooke expected her to at least move when Kura shot her arm forward, but she got a large shock. Kura's fist sunk right into Tanpopo's cheek, sending her tumbling on the ground with her limbs flying as she almost rolled out of the layer. Renjiro appeared to have made no attempt to stop her. It was friction that slowed her down and stopped her only just from the edge of the layer.

Brooke looked up from the layer to see Renjiro. Her first thought was that this was some kind of plan to trick her and make her lose the match. When she looked up Brooke found he wasn't even watching the layer, but continuing to look right at her. Brooke twitched, greatly confused at what he was trying to do. She could only meet his eyes for a second before turning back to the layer.

Kura was in a fighting position and waiting once more. Tanpopo had stood back up, but she remained as immobile as ever. All she would do was turn her head slightly to watch Kura move. Kura's face looked just as confused as Brooke's and she waited even longer for Tanpopo to move. Nothing. Kura charged again, even faster this time. If she hit her again it would be a quick layer out, and an end to shortest match ever. Kura pulled her arm back again as she got closer to the yellow angel. She shot it out towards Tanpopo's face again, but as it became obvious she was not going to move a look of anger found it way onto Kura's faces. Only a split second away from hitting Tanpopo did Kura pull back her punch and jump away from the angel.

"Are you going to fight or not? It's not worth it if you don't even try." Brooke said to Renjiro, looking up again at him. He was still staring straight at her. He looked even angrier than she did.

"Shut up." he repeated again, with more venom. The judge watched in silence, unable to tell what was going on. It was a strange match for anyone to watch.

Kura stayed where she was, and staring straight at Tanpopo. After a seemingly long moment of silence she began to move forward. As Tanpopo moved all she did was slowly walk over to Kura in very small steps. Kura stood normally now, watching her. She tensed slightly in case Tanpopo made a sudden move. Tanpopo just kept on walking slowly until she got right up to Kura. She raised her hand and slapped Kura across the face. It was so weak though that Kura barely even had to turn her head. Brooke groaned in agitation to how Renjiro was taking this fight. Knowing nothing was going to happen she turned to look at the clock. It hadn't even been a minute and a half since the fight had started. Her blood finally beginning to boil as she had Kura react violently.

Kura grabbed Tanpopo's arm and pulled her around in a large circle twice before slamming Tanpopo on her back. This resulted into Tanpopo rolling on the ground once more. She ended up on her back. Renjiro didn't even bother to get her up. Her fists tight in irritation, Brooke had Kura go up to Tanpopo and stand her up. Kura kicked her in her stomach and she fell down again. Kura picked her up once more and gave her a hard uppercut. Again she picked her up, another kick. Again and again Kura picked her up, and again and again there was no response.

Brooke took another moment to look at the clock. It had only been two minutes. By now she had figured out she wasn't going to get any response no matter what she did. Plus, Brooke was just fed up with it all. After knocking her down again Kura picked up Tanpopo. However she did not hit her, but picked her up and walked her over to the edge. Turning in a circle to get momentum she finally flung Tanpopo out of the layer and into Renjiro's lap. The layer buzzed and the judge, after a moment of silence still trying to process the match, announced Brooke as the winner. She left to go get her card made and it didn't take long for the air to become awkward again.

Brooke had taken Kura off the layer and had taken off the headset. It would have been just as easy to hit Tanpopo a couple more times to drain her stats, but Brooke felt sorry for her. It wasn't her fault her Deus was a jerk. It had been very hard for her to keep hitting her like that, but she had just been hoping Renjiro would've become sensible and started to fight back. It didn't feel like a fair fight, and Brooke was thinking about refusing the card, but she already knew she wouldn't. She watched in silence as Renjiro stuffed Tanpopo in his bag and stood up. Expecting him to walk away, Brooke was surprised when he came over to her. Without thinking she took a step away and grew cold when she saw the smug smile that crept onto Renjiro's face when he saw this.

"Why didn't you fight back?" Brooke asked him. It sounded like it came out confidently, but inside Brooke was shaking. She assumed he was just going tell her to shut up again, but instead he chuckled. Brooke wished he wouldn't because it sent a large chill down her spine.

"I didn't feel like wasting my time against someone so weak. I came here hoping I could find someone who I could have a serious battle with, but I got paired up with you. Worst say of my life." Renjiro spoke as if the two minutes had been the biggest waste of his life.

"If I'm so weak then why didn't you just beat Kura quick and get it over with? It would have wasted less of your time." Brooke tried to speak in a cold tone, but it failed. As hard as she tried, she couldn't help but let Renjiro's words get to her. It was the first time she had ever felt so helpless against another person. Her body was refusing to let her fight back, and she didn't like it one bit. Renjiro obviously could sense this, and didn't even bother to answer her question.

"Why do you look so scared England? It is me you're scared of? Well that's just rude now isn't it?" he said in a fake insulted tone that struck Brooke hard. She couldn't handle this at all, and it was the fact that she wasn't able to that was upsetting her the most. She had endured her share of bullying over the years, and it had been worse than how it was now. Brooke had been able to fight back then and stand up for herself, and one time her friends had to hold her back to stop her from punching a girl who had hit her. Never had she taken so long to find her words, and never once had she felt like crying like she did at the moment. Now Renjiro was leaning closer to her and brought his lips up to her ear. He whispered something so inaudible Brooke had a hard time hearing what he was saying. When she figured out what he said her eyes grew wide and her heart sank. Brooke became rooted to the spot and could only watch as Renjiro walked away with a look of extreme pleasure on his face. Soon after the judge returned with her card.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked when she saw Brooke's face. Brooke shook her head. The judge didn't look convinced, but bowed and walked away into the staff area. Brooke held her card and stared at it for awhile until someone came and patted her on the back.

"Brooke-chan you finished before me? That's great. That Suzushima must not have been a tough opponent. Did you get your card yet?" Aya asked Brooke happily.

"Yeah." Brooke responses quietly. The smile slid off of Aya's face and she placed a hand on Brooke's shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

"Yeah." Brooke nodded her head. Aya stared at her for a moment before wrapping her arms around her. Just this made Brooke feel comforted, but at the same time it made her want to cry even more.

"He's a jerk isn't he?" Aya said softly.

"Yeah." Brooke said even softer. She was trying really hard not to lose herself, and she didn't want to with all the people around her.

"We were going to go out shopping after and get some ice cream. Do you want to come or do you want to call your mom?" Aya asked releasing Brooke from the hug.

"I'll come." Brooke told her.

"Okay." Aya said gently, "Come on. Let's go watch your sister finish kicking her opponent's butt."

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"I'm home!" Aimee said loudly as she walked into the house.

"I'm home." Brooke replied also, but it was so silent only she and Aimee could hear it.

"Welcome home girls." their mother said as she appeared from the kitchen.

"Did you guys have fun?" Shino asked as he also appeared from the living room, with Cobey happily riding along on his back.

"Yeah, it was great. Brooke and I both got our cards. Then we waited until Conan got off his shift before we headed out to do some shopping. I must admit Brooke's friend Jacques-kun is certainly amusing." Aimee told him in a cheerful manner.

"What about you Brooke?" Shinosuke asked his sister. From where he was standing her face was hidden behind Aimee. Aimee moved over and as soon as he saw Brooke's face he could tell something was wrong.

"It was fun." Brooke said, although she didn't expect them to believe as she didn't herself. She had tried her hardest to fell better, but all she could concentrate on was what Renjiro had told her.

"I'm going to go lay down." she said into the silence. No one said anything or stopped her as she headed up the stairs toward her room. In fact no one said anything even after she was gone. Finally Shino asked the question both he and his mother were thinking.

"What happened?"

Aimee rubbed the back of her neck and sighed loudly.

"It's complicated."

Meanwhile upstairs, Brooke couldn't get to her bed fast enough. She held her pillow so tight and buried her face into it. She didn't want to move from the spot, and she wanted to lie there forever. Brooke was still trying to hold it back, but now that there was no one around to try and fool she couldn't stop the tears starting to form.

"Such a jerk." she muttered. It was the end of a very bad, and very long, day.


	6. The Bet

**Chapter Six: The Bet**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belong to me.**

**A/N: I was kind of worried that this chapter would be too short. Then I realized it would come out about the same length as chapter five, and it has. That's a nice relief. For some reason I got stuck writing when I got to the point where Brooke is in the bookstore. Luckily I got past is and the rest proceeded smoothly. I'm sorry if the ending seems a little rushed. It was New Years day when I wrote the last pages or so and I had no sleep the night before and it was heading on 1 a.m. I could have stopped, but I really wanted to finish. So I hope you enjoy this chapter because I worked really hard on it. :)**** So maybe you should go ahead and review. **

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Brooke's eyes snapped open when she heard her mom calling her and telling her to wake up. Brooke responded, but didn't feel like getting up just yet. Her parent's always got up earlier than she needed to be, so she knew she had some time to just laze about. She rolled onto her side and looked up at the ceiling. After she had gotten a good night's sleep she felt much better. Of course she was still thinking about what Renjiro said, but she wasn't as hurt anymore. Thinking back on it now she had been upset at the way he had been fighting, and so she had probably just been too emotional at the time.

After lying on her bed for couple minutes more Brooke decided to get up. Her mother would keep bugging her if she did not get up soon. Brooke wished that she could sleep all day, but knew it was impossible. She didn't dislike school it was just that she didn't want to have to deal with the jerk. Brooke felt fine now, but it knew she wouldn't be able to deal with him all day again. She sighed and got up and went into her bathroom to take a shower, and then changed into her uniform after she got out.

Brooke went to her mirror and dried and brushed her hair. Randomly she got the urge to do something else with it than normal. Quickly she took out her curling iron and put large curls into her hair. After looking through a drawer she found a white headband and put it on, letting her bangs out in front. The second she was finished a knock came from the door. It was her mother asking if she was up yet. With a roll of her eyes Brooke answered yes and walked over to head down for breakfast.

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"Brooke-chan please hurry!" Aya said to Brooke as they made their way to school once more. Aya was not as scared as she had been the day before. The proof was because she did not have Brooke in a death-grip, and she was actually telling Brooke to go faster. Reluctant, as she was getting tired, Brooke pedaled faster.

"You know Aya-chan we're not going to be late." Brooke told her friend as she took a moment to look back at her. Aya looked down at her.

"But we're going to cut it closer than we have before. I've never been late to school once and I refuse to start now all because you picked me up late."

"Only five minutes, and that was because my tire had gone flat. And anyways, how'd you get to school before I got here?" Brooke asked her.

"I walked." Aya replied.

"How early did you have to leave then?"

"A lot earlier."

"So you should be grateful I'm giving you more time to sleep."

"Yes, Brooke-sama."

"Oh shut up." Brooke laughed along with Aya. At that moment they reached the school's gates and Brooke went up to the bike stand. Aya hopped off and Brooke tied up her bike before they went to change their shoes. Once inside Brooke started to slow down. Now that she was finally here her heart began to pound again. If this was how it was going to be every day Brooke knew she wouldn't be able to stand it. After closing her locker she gently lay her head against the cold metal. Taking a moment to collect herself she went to the stairs where Aya was waiting for her. On the way up they ran into Jacques who seemed to be taking his own sweet time to get to the classroom.

"Jacques-kun you're going to be late if you don't hurry up." Aya told him as they caught up to him. Jacques looked down at his watch.

"We still have seven minutes." he said with a small smile.

"Exactly, that's late." Aya told him as she grabbed his hand and started to pull him along. They didn't even go five feet before Jacques pulled his hand away. Aya stopped and turned back around. She looked at him and placed her fists on her hips. Jacques wrapped his arms around Brooke and pouted.

"Brooke-chan, Aya-chan's being mean again. I don't want to go inside the classroom yet and she's pulling me. Now she's glaring at me." he said in his fine-tuned sarcastic voice.

"I'm not glaring." Aya told him, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help twitching.

"Now Aya-chan be nice." Brooke told her.

"Brooke-chan you're so nice~" Jacques sighed.

"Thank you." Brooke responded. With that Jacques stood up normally, but still looked at Brooke.

"Your hair looks really nice today."

"Thanks. Aya told me the same thing earlier. I just felt I wanted to do something with it today."

"Well you should try different things with it. The length suits you too. I like longer hair."

"Can we please go inside now guys." Aya begged, motioning her hands toward the door. Brooke started her way past Aya and towards the room.

"You couldn't have gone inside without us you know." Brooke told her as she reached out for the handle. She stopped dead in her tracks before she reached the handle and placed her arm back down at her side. Before either of them could say anything she turned back to face them.

"Jacques-kun, do you want to go in first?" she asked with a smile.

"Why do you wa-" Jacques started before pausing, "Oh. Yeah sure I'll go in first."

He took the steps over to the door and as he reached for the handle Brooke stepped aside. She knew Jacques and Aya were more able at handling Renjiro. She winced as Jacques opened the door and looked inside. There was an expression on his face she couldn't read, then he smiled at her.

"Don't worry he's not even here yet."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Thank goodness." Brooke sighed with relief. With that they all went into the classroom and chatted while they waited for the bell to ring. Even after it did Renjiro did not show up. They to her great reprieve the teacher announced he would not be there today. Brooke leaned back in her chair and knew the day was going to be a lot better than the one before it.

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"Three days gone and he's still not back yet. Maybe we got lucky and he got kidnapped." Aya saying as she walked ahead of Brooke and Jacques leaving Piffle Princess. The sun was just starting to set in the Thursday sky, basking the white clouds in golden light. Brooke was glad, but couldn't help but think it was unusual. Renjiro had indeed not been there since Monday, and the teacher offered no explanation to why he hadn't returned. Brooke couldn't complain a whole lot, and she could tell no one else in the class did either.

"Don't you think that's a little extreme?" Jacques asked her. Aya shifted to look at him, then slowed down so she could walk next to him.

"I think being kidnapped could do him some good. Maybe if he wasn't in a position that suited him and where if he talked back like that would get him hurt, it might teach him some manners." Aya answered. Jacques looked at her and then turned to Brooke, motioning her for he lean in closer. Brooke did and Jacques "whispered" to her.

"Hey maybe Aya-chan kidnapped him and that's why he's been gone. Then she's covering up with saying she wished he would be kidnapped."

"You think so? Maybe you're right." Brooke agreed, going along with the joke. Aya, who could obviously hear them, 'humpf-ed' and walked ahead once more.

"Aya-chan I didn't mean it, I'm sorry~ I was just joking~" Jacques whined as he ran up to catch up to her. Brooke laughed and then stopped suddenly when she realized something. To confirm it she looked up at the street sign and then took out a piece of paper that had been given to her earlier that day.

"Hey guys hang on a minute!" she called over to Aya and Jacques who had moved about fifteen feet in front of her as they had not been paying attention.

"What is it?" Aya asked her, slightly tilting her head to one side.

"My dad asked me to pick up this book for him, and the book shop is on this street."

"Do you want us to come with you?" Jacques questioned.

"No. I'll be alright. You two can go on and head home." Brooke told them.

"You sure?" Aya asked. Brooke nodded in confirmation. Aya and Jacques looked at each other before looking back at Brooke and waving goodbye. Brooke waved back and started to head down the street and her friends quickly disappeared out of sight. She had only been in this area once before, but knew where the bookstore was at least. If she got lost she could call Aimee or her mom and ask them to come and get her. It wasn't dark enough for it to be really dangerous yet.

Brooke kept looking from side to side as she walked. She knew the bookstore was on this street, but didn't know which side it was on. It was interesting to see the other shops too. There was a cute looking clothing shop she would have to take Aya to visit soon, and across the street was a café. It looked to be very popular as every table was filled and people were waiting outside to get the chance to eat. She then noticed that there were a couple people from her school standing in the line also. Then she turned her head to the left and found she was walking right past the bookstore.

The bell on the door jingled as she stepped inside. It was a small store, but it had a very friendly atmosphere. She wanted to look around, but knew she didn't have much time to waste. Brooke got in line behind a man and shifted slightly to look at the store. The walls were a chocolate brown and the store had a very light and sweet smell to it. The large windows in the front let in a lot of light and time seemed to pass slower inside. It was if the store was separate from the world.

"Can I help you?" the cashier asked Brooke. Brooke stepped up to the counter.

"Um yes. I'm here to pick up a book my father ordered." she told the woman.

"Name?" the cashier asked.

"Wataru Miyoko."

"Just a moment please." Brooke was told. The cashier turned around and looked through a stack of books. Brooke smiled as she looked around. While she was here maybe she should pick up a book. She liked a good story, even if she didn't read books too often. There had been a book she had wanted to get for awhile. However, as soon as she reached into her bag she realized that she had already spent all of her money on Angelic Layer items. She sighed and withdrew her hand. The cashier then turned back around with the book and Brooke took it.

Stepping back onto the street the noise volume grew twice as loud. It was strange but to Brooke it felt like time was moving faster again. Even so, she felt calmer just taking a few moments in that bookstore. Brooke looked to her right and then to her left. If she went back the way she came she would have to take the long way home. Brooke had never been to the left though, but she was pretty sure she knew her way home anyway. For a second she reasoned just to be on the safe side she should go the way she knew would take her home. Tired and not wanting to walk the extra distance is what made Brooke change her mind.

Brooke started left and kept an eye out for the street she needed to turn down. The bag the book was in bumped gently against her leg as she walked. She hadn't bothered to look at it and she had never asked her father what it was about. It was for his work so Brooke figured it wouldn't be that interesting anyway. How her father was able to do the job he did was beyond her. Her father must have had a different opinion than she did and liked his work. To Brooke it was only tedious and boring. She had never given much thought to what she wanted to do when she grew older. Angelic Layer had become such a great interest for her, so maybe she could find some kind of job relating to that.

She had to stop and wait for the light to change before she could cross the road. According to what Brooke remembered she needed to head to the right down this street. Brooke walked across with a small group of people. This street was a lot busier than the one she had turned from. In the distance she could see a large building, which Brooke knew to be the hospital. Good, that was where she needed to head towards. It soon became rather obvious that the longer way probably would've been the shorter way. There were so many shops that attracted Brooke's attention. She would stop and stare in the window, the only thing stopping her from going in is the fact she had no money.

As the sun began to set she finally got it in her head that she needed to get home. Luckily she wasn't much further from the hospital. Her house would be close by then. Brooke's heart skipped a beat as she realized she wasn't recognizing where she was anymore. The shops were unfamiliar and light from the sun was rapidly diminishing. Brooke's hand gripped tighter on the plastic bag. She tried to calm herself down by telling herself she had already thought about what would happen if she got lost. Plus she was sure if she could make it to the hospital she would remember where to go from there, but how had she walked past it?

Brooke stopped walking and looked down the street she had been going down. It was a continual line of shops with no road to turn down. Looking ahead of her she found a road that turned left. If she went down that one there would surely be a way to get to the hospital then. Brooke crossed the street and made it to the other side. Heading down that street did not help either. It was just another row of buildings, but then she caught sight of a smaller road that appeared to head in the direction of the hospital. Brooke had no idea where the road was leading her, and when she got to the end she had the choice of five other roads to head down. Her instinct was telling her just to call her mom or someone, but she was so sure if she could just get to the hospital she would be fine.

Road after road Brooke turned down. At some points it looked like she was almost there, and at other times it felt like was just getting farther and farther away. She hadn't remembered it being this difficult to get to. Maybe she had come from a different direction the time has passed by it. By now the sun had set completely and the only lights Brooke had was from the streetlights and from windows. She could no longer read the street signs and she had no idea how to get back to the first street with all the shops. If only she could get there she would be able to get home. Now her heart skipped another beat, this time with joy. She had turned down one road and on it was the hospital.

She started to run towards it and quickly realized she was not where she needed to be at all. This was not the right hospital. The large building in front of her was a hospital for only minors 18 and younger. The building was far away from her house and now it was solid fact that she had never been in this area before. It would have been easy for her to go and tell the people inside she was lost, but Brooke couldn't bring herself to do it. At the moment she was shaken and scared and could not get her feet to move anymore. Her quivering hand reached into her bag for her cell phone. The battery and reception was low, but it would be enough to call home.

Brooke dialed in the number and put the phone up to her ear. Just hearing it ring was comforting and in a few seconds she would hear her mom or Aimee's voice. They would tell her it was alright and tell her they would be coming to get her. Aimee would probably make fun of her for getting lost and her mom might get angry with her, but she didn't mind. Brooke had never really gotten lost before, and now she was with the night getting darker every second and the chance of something bad happening increasing. If she got grounded for a week or two she didn't mind. Brooke just wanted to be home already.

Something was strange though. The phone had been ringing for a bit now, and still no one had picked up yet. Maybe her mom had gone out for something and her father wouldn't get home for another hour, but Aimee should've been home. Aimee would definitely be home. But again and again the phone rang and no answer came. Brooke held perfectly still. If she had to let it ring a thousand times and leave a thousand messages she would until someone picked up.

"Hello?" Aimee's voice came from the speaker suddenly. To Brooke it felt like her heart stopped beating all together.

"Aimee!" she said loudly.

"Bro-" Aimee started, but she was cut off. Brooke hesitated before she brought the phone down. She stared at the black screen with a feeling of great regret and loss. If only the battery had held out for just a moment more she would have been fine. Desperately Brooke tried turning it on again. She waited and for a split second the screen flashed on only to die once more. With a lead heart did Brooke close the phone and put it away. The only option now was to go inside the hospital and to ask for their help. Brooke had lost all spirit and felt so nervous just turning around. When she managed to do the motion she quickly stopped as there was someone right behind her. She couldn't tell who it was and was terrified that they had gotten so close without her noticing. Brooke let out a small shriek and took a large step backwards. The figure recoiled and covered his ears.

"What the hell are you doing you idiot?" they said and Brooke knew at once who it was. Brooke, who had covered her face with her bag, slowly brought it down to see Renjiro standing there with an extremely angered face on his look. However he also looked as shocked to see Brooke there as Brooke was to see him. He didn't look sick so Brooke knew that wasn't the reason why he hadn't been in school, so what could it have been?

"I asked you what the hell are you doing idiot?" Renjiro asked Brooke again. Brooke tried to stand up straight and appear to have confidence even though it had left her long ago. Brooke opened her mouth to speak, but as hard as she tried the only noise she could get out of her was a small quiver of breath.

"Oi, England!" Renjiro said louder and Brooke recoiled slightly.

"I-I just…" she mumbled, finding a little bit of her voice. She couldn't tell him anything because she knew he would make fun of her. It was strange though. Brooke knew Renjiro didn't like her, and she wasn't that fond of him either, but just by him being there did she feel great relief. She was able to raise her gaze a little and found that Renjiro was staring right at her.

"You're lost aren't you?" he said. Brooke averted his gaze. She didn't want to say yes to him, but if he had already asked it was pretty obvious to him that she was. The way he had spoken had been had been more gentle in a way that made Brooke felt like he might be showing genuine feelings of concernment. Her heart had finally found a steady tick and Brooke had stopped shaking.

"Just a little." Brooke told him quietly.

"How can you be just a little lost? You're either lost or you're not."

"Then I'm lost."

"How'd you get lost?"

"Obviously I wandered into an area I didn't know."

"Why you wander into a place if you had no idea where you were?"

"I thought I knew where I was going, but I was wrong."

"I'll say. No one from school lives around here."

"Then what are you doing here?" Brooke asked him.

"None of your damn business." Renjiro responded swiftly and very coldly. He folded his arms and looked at her. Brooke wasn't sure what to say.

"So what are you going to do?" he asked her. His voice mellowed out slightly.

"I was going to ask someone in there to help." Brooke told Renjiro as she pointed behind him to the hospital lobby. Renjiro turned and looked behind him to where she was pointing.

"Don't bother. They're all busy. I'll take you home." Renjiro said. His last sentence lingered in the air and disappeared into the silence that followed. Brooke couldn't understand what he was saying even though she knew exactly what it was that he had said.

"W-what?" was all that she could speak.

"I said I'll take you home." Renjiro told her again with a stiffer voice.

"I….I don't-"

"Fine! If you don't want me to I'll just leave!" Renjiro spoke loudly and started to walk away. For a moment Brooke was rooted to the spot, and watched Renjiro's retreating back in silence.

"Wait!" she yelled suddenly. Renjiro took a few more steps before stopping. Brooke waited to see if he was going to turn around. Then she realized that he was waiting for her. She slung her bag back over her shoulder and ran up to him. It was silent once more and then Renjiro looked at her.

"Well?" he asked.

"Well what?" Brooke responded, unsure of what he wanted.

"It'd be nice if I knew where you lived!" Renjiro answered rolling his eyes. Brooke blushed a little and told him. Renjiro looked up to the sky as he thought and headed in the same direction he had been going. Brooke walked along side him and quietly watched the scenery. She wasn't sure if he would get angry at her for trying to talk to him. It was strange indeed. Renjiro still looked like he was angry, but the way he was acting was so different from how he had treated her before. He wasn't condemning her for every word she spoke and he was actually listening to what she said. On top of it all he was actually showing some compassion and was volunteering to take her home. Brooke thought it was kind of funny and smiled only just a little bit. Then Renjiro said something she wasn't able to hear.

"What was that?" Brooke asked him. Then it occurred to her she probably wasn't supposed to hear it and prepared for him to yell at her again.

"I said I don't think you're as bad at Angelic Layer as I said you were before. I was just extremely angry that day." he spoke in a quiet voice that was very unnatural for him.

"Thank you." Brooke said honestly. Words were coming out of his mouth she'd never thought she would hear.

"I didn't mean what I whispered to you either."

"I'll get over it." Brooke told him. She had been looking at him for the last couple seconds, and after she finished her sentence for the first time did Renjiro turn his head away from her. A shadow hid his face so she wasn't sure what kind of expression he had.

"If I had really tried though, you would've lost that match anyway." Renjiro continued.

"I don't think that's true at all." Brooke said defiantly.

"I bet if we competed in the Kanto games I would beat you within our first round." Renjiro responded in the same manner.

"I bet you wouldn't even make it as far enough as to even get to challenge me."

"Alright then." he spoke.

"Huh?" Brooke questioned.

"It's a bet. Well compete in the Kanto games to see who the better Deus is."

"The Kanto games?!" Brooke exclaimed. She had just been going along with what he had been saying. She didn't think he would actually take it seriously, "You can't be serious?"

"I'm one hundred percent serious. You bet me so you're going to participate in the games."

"You're not giving me a choice are you?"

"England, there wasn't even a possibility of a choice." Renjiro finished. They walked in silence, but for the moment, all that needed to be said had been said. After a long twenty-five minutes Brooke was finally starting to recognize the area again. It was still a ways to her house, but she was definitely heading home. A car's headlights shone from the back. Brooke turned around to take a quick glance, but could not see much because the lights were too bright. She expected the car to continue on past them, but the lights continued to shine. Brooke and Renjiro both looked back and saw that the car has stopped. Brooke tensed because she wasn't sure what was about to happen. A figure got out of the car and started towards them while both Brooke and Renjiro started to back away.

"Brooke?" the figure said and Brooke knew who it was.

"Shino!" Brooke said as she rushed into her brother's arms. She hugged him as tightly as she could while he wrapped his arms around her. He was warm and a great source of comfort towards her.

"Where in the world did you go? Aimee thought it was strange that you hadn't come home sooner, and was in a panic after your call. She thought you were being attacked or something." Shino said. He was also greatly relieved and spoke to her in a concerned voice, but also was slightly reprimanding her.

"My cell phone had died. I accidentally had gotten lost." Brooke explained to him.

"I see." Then he paused, "Aimee even called Aya-san and Jacques-san to see if they knew anything. They're probably worried beyond all belief. Mom's a wreck and dad left work early once he heard what was happening. I got a call from him about five minutes ago. I started searching for you and dad and Aimee are searching somewhere around Piffle."

"I'm sorry." Brooke's voice quivered as she spoke. Her eyes were starting to swell from great relief of being found, and also from the immense guilt she now felt. She hadn't been thinking at all of how her family and friends would react after they had gotten the call. Brooke couldn't imagine how they must have felt when they began to think that she might not come home. Brooke held Shino tighter and tried to apologize once more. She could not find her voice again, adding to the total of how many times she had gone speechless lately.

"But you were heading in the right direction at least. Who was that boy helping you?" Shino asked. Brooke looked up at him. What did he mean by 'was' helping her. He was still standing there wasn't he? Brooke turned around to discover that Renjiro wasn't there anymore.

"Suzushima-san?!" Brooke yelled into the night air. There was no response. When he had left Brooke had no idea.

"Isn't he the one you're always calling a jerk?" Shino asked her.

"No. He's not a jerk. Now he's more just like a slight pest." Brooke spoke with a slight smile. With that Shino placed his hand on Brooke's shoulder and led her into the car. Now the only thing left to do that night was apologize over and over again and let her mother fuss over her.

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"Oh Brooke-chan! I was so scared you got lost~" Jacques's worried voice rang out as he pulled Brooke into a tight hug. Brooke rolled her eyes.

"Jacques-kun that was three weeks ago. You can stop doing that now." Brooke told him, peeling him off of her. True to her word Brooke was at the Angelic Layer arena in line to register for the Kanto games. After her parents had calmed down that one night they had grounded her for three days and Aimee insisted on riding to school with her and Aya. Jacques had been upset, but had gotten past the incident quickly. However Aya had continued to remain upset and refused to talk to her. Once Brooke told her a week later about the bet Aya forgave Brooke and said they needed to start training right away. Now they were all standing in line. They had been waiting for awhile, but it was almost their turn. Brooke had not seen Renjiro at all though.

"Hey what if he just made up this bet so you would register and then hope you would fail to look horrible on television?" Aya asked Brooke. Brooke had told both of them the details of what had happened. Renjiro had not come to school for the rest of that weeks, but had been there everyday since, and only ignored Brooke.

"No. I don't think he would do that. He told me he is one percent serious about this." Brooke responded. There was no doubt in her mind that Renjiro would sign up.

"If you believe him I guess its okay. I'd be here anyway so it doesn't make too much of a difference. You think you can do this though Brooke-chan?"

"Of course I can. You've been training me ever since we met. If I can't win at least one match here by now then I must really suck." Brooke joked. Then it was their turn to register.

"They're doing it slightly different this year then they have in the past." Aya told Brooke.

"How so?" Brooke asked her.

"Normally there's only one section and the winner and runner-up go on to the nationals. This year they are separating all participants into two groups. Then there will be finals from each section. The winners from each section will go on to the nationals, instead of one winner and one runner-up."

"That's kind of interesting." Brooke took the card the lady at the counter handed out to her. Aya looked at her card and then Brooke's, and finally Jacques's.

"We're all in the second division." Jacques pointed out. Then they all went to look at a giant board that was continually adding the pictures of new registrants and what division they were in.

"Brooke-chan you need to see this." Jacques said as he pointed to one picture. Brooke knew who it would be, but she couldn't believe what was under the picture.

"That's Suzushima-san. He's in division 1." Aya said. Brooke stared at the picture in disbelief.

"So that means if I want to face him I have to go all the way to nationals?!" she spoke loudly so that quite a good number of people turned to look at her.


	7. I Wonder

**Chapter Seven: I Wonder**

**Disclaimer:** **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me.**

**A/N: I wanted to have this chapter up before January ended, but I guess that didn't happen. At least I'm getting more consistent, so it makes me happy. I've never been good of thinking up matches. I think it turned out alright and I hope you guys like it. Please comment, it makes me very happy and it will make me write chapters faster. :)**

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"_I'll get over it." Brooke told him. She had been looking at him for the last couple seconds, and after she finished her sentence for the first time did Renjiro turn his head away from her. A shadow hid his face so she wasn't sure what kind of expression he had._

"_If I had really tried though, you would've lost that match anyway." Renjiro continued._

"_I don't think that's true at all." Brooke said defiantly._

"_I bet if we competed in the Kanto games I would beat you within our first round." Renjiro responded in the same manner._

"_I bet you wouldn't even make it as far enough as to even get to challenge me."_

"_Alright then." he spoke._

"_Huh?" Brooke questioned._

"_It's a bet. Well compete in the Kanto games to see who the better Deus is."_

"_The Kanto games?!" Brooke exclaimed. She had just been going along with what he had been saying. She didn't think he would actually take it seriously, "You can't be serious?"_

"_I'm one hundred percent serious. You bet me so you're going to participate in the games."_

"_You're not giving me a choice are you?"_

"_England, there wasn't even a possibility of a choice."_

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"_Normally there's only one section and the winner and runner-up go on to the nationals. This year they are separating all participants into two groups. Then there will be finals from each section. The winners from each section will go on to the nationals, instead of one winner and one runner-up."_

"_That's kind of interesting." Brooke took the card the lady at the counter handed out to her. Aya looked at her card and then Brooke's, and finally Jacques's._

"_We're all in the second division." Jacques pointed out. Then they all went to look at a giant board that was continually adding the pictures of new registrants and what division they were in._

"_Brooke-chan you need to see this." Jacques said as he pointed to one picture. Brooke knew who it would be, but she couldn't believe what was under the picture._

"_That's Suzushima-san. He's in division 1." Aya said. Brooke stared at the picture in disbelief._

"_So that means if I want to face him I have to go all the way to nationals?!" she spoke loudly so that quite a good number of people turned to look at her._

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Brooke let out a long, shaky, and practically terrified breath. She knew her face was pale and no matter what she did she could not get her hands to stop shaking. Her heels clicked together quietly. Swallowing hard did not do anything to help her dry throat and she wondered if she was ever going to survive this day. When she had woken up it felt like this day was just any other day. For a few hours Brooke wondered if the past week had been a complete dream. Then Aya had shown up at her house demanding to know why Brooke was not ready yet.

Then it had become very really and very frightening. Aya made her go change into the outfit they had bought for this day. Aya had found a white blouse that Brooke thought was too plain, but when Brooke found a cute tan skirt they matched up perfectly. Once she had changed Aya had politely barged her way in and put Brooke's hair up in braids and for a finishing touch a single star clip over her bangs. Aya had asked her if she had wanted makeup, but Brooke said no. She had not really worn any since she had moved. There was no Brandon to impress anymore so why bother? She looked just fine without it.

After she had said no to the makeup Aya had grabbed her hand and they rushed out of the house. Luckily Brooke had the sense to grab Kura and her things or else Aya's mom would have driven them all the way to the stadium without her. What would have occurred if that had happened would have been an interesting thing to watch. As soon as they arrived at the stadium Brooke had fully woken up. Then she realized Aya had brought her here almost half an hour earlier than they needed to be. Brooke was carefully choosing what words she would say to Aya, until she saw Jacques was there too. He had been used to Aya's "on time" schedule for years, so he told Brooke he always made sure he was on time also.

That was when it had all began to sink in. It felt all those weeks of training had never happened and that she was completely unprepared. Brooke was silent even after they checked with the main desk and went to sit in the waiting area for the second division participants. This led to the point where they were now. Brooke was having her nervous fit while Aya and Jacques chatted to each other. Of course they had tried to snap Brooke out of it, but whatever they did was pointless. In the end they decided to let Brooke work it out herself.

Brooke was trying really hard to convince herself that she could do this. She looked down in her lap where Kura was sitting up against her peacefully. Brooke closed her eyes and attempted to be like her. The sound around her muffled slightly, and for moment her heart calmed. No matter how hard she tried the thoughts of what was coming up kept flooding back into her mind. With a small sigh she opened her eyes and stared at the pale white wall across from her. Somehow, somehow she would get through this.

"-an. Brooke-chan! She's not even listening to me now!" a voice rang in her head. Brooke turned her head and found Aya and Jacques staring at her. She blushed a little, feeling no less than incredibly stupid.

"Sorry. Really, I-I…I'm just so nervous that I can't think at all right now." she apologized. She could feel Aya's gaze on her and then heard Aya sigh also.

"Don't worry about it. I remember how I felt the first time and I was doing no better than you are. You learn to get past the nerves quick. Once you get into the chair and start fighting it'll all come back to you and you'll stop being nervous." Aya told her. This was actually the second time she had said similar, but Aya was pretty sure Brooke had not been listening the first time she had said it. Brooke did hear her this time however, so she nodded.

"What did you want to tell me before?" Brooke asked her. Aya smiled slightly.

"That it's almost my turn so I have to go now." When Aya said this Brooke began to panic. She knew she had to stop clinging to Aya, but REALLY didn't want her to go, "So cheer for me okay?"

"Yeah. I will." Brooke told her. With that Aya gave a small wave to her and Jacques and left through the door on the left side of the room. Once she was gone Brooke stared at the floor. If it was already Aya's turn, some time must have passed. Aimee had probably already gone also. On the day they had registered Brooke had gone home and Aimee surprised her with the fact that she had registered three hours prior. She had ended up in the first division, but Brooke would rather have it that way. There was already a good chance she would have to face Aya and Jacques, and she didn't want to do that either.

Brooke could feel Jacques looking at her, but couldn't find anything to say to him. When she looked at him he just winked. Brooke couldn't do anything but smile weakly. She knew he was saying he understood. Leaning back against the couch and staring at the ceiling. By now every inch of that room must have been pierced by Brooke's stare. She had looked at all the other Deus's and their angels. Only a few others looked nervous like her. It was then apparent to her then that she was only one of a few newbies. Her goal was to become a "miracle rookie" like Misaki Suzuhara, but severely doubted it at this point. The fact that she was being so depressive also contributed to her poor mood. Brooke hated that feeling.

Suddenly cheering came from the single television in the room, and Brooke assumed Aya's fight must have started. She looked over to the television and watched Aya throw Shizuko in, and her opponent doing the same with her angel. This was obviously a fight everyone was looking forward to because everyone in the room was watching the match now, even though a couple had been before. Brooke wished they were allowed to sit in the stadium. After this first day they would be able to, but in order to make sure everyone was where they needed to be the workers had told them to wait in the rooms.

Brooke couldn't see a lot of the match, but the announcer's voice rang loud, so she was able to hear what was happening. It made her feel better because it sounded like this was going to be an easy win for Aya. About halfway through Jacques got up and stood closer to the television mounted against the wall. Brooke noticed he was only one of two boys in the room. The other one was sitting in the corner staring at his angel. A large gasp came from the crowd and from the announcer's comments it appeared that Shizuko took a large blow. Brooke held her breath and waited for some sort of news that Aya had rebounded. It came only seconds later when the crowd screamed their loudest cry yet. Aya had tossed the other angel out of the layer, quite forcefully it sounded like. A weight felt like it had lifted, Aya had won her match.

Another heavier feeling then dawned on her. She was after this next match. It wouldn't be much longer now. Brooke took a large breath and closed her eyes once more. She needed to calm down, she had to. Even as Jacques took his seat down next to her she still kept her eyes closed. They were shut tight as the announcer started the next fight and the progression through it. What seemed like only seconds later the fight was coming to the end. The crowd cheered loudly as someone won. Only when Jacques placed a hand on her shoulder did Brooke dare to open her eyes. Keeping her eyes shut did nothing to help calm her down. In fact it had increased her nerves, but it was too late to do anything now. She had to go. After a hard swallow and deep breath Brooke looked at Jacques for a second. He gave an encouraging nod with his head and sent Brooke off with his wide smile.

Brooke walked slowly towards the door that led out of the waiting room. Her hand was shaking as she opened it and walked outside. Now that she was beyond the room Brooke saw there was a long hallway that led to the stadium on the end. Brooke had been wondering what had been on the other side for a while. A worker was there and asked if she was Brooke Miyoko. Brooke nodded and the worker asked for her to follow her to the end of the stadium. It was silent between them, but the cheering and noise from the stadium made up for it. When she had been watching it on the television the place had seemed very far away, but now it was right upon her. The walk had gone by too fast. The worker smiled and motioned for her to step out into the lights. With one more deep breath and small moment of hesitation did Brooke take that step.

The announcer yelled out her name into his microphone and the crowd cheered for her. Robotically she started walking towards her chair and didn't listen to the announcer as he told her opponent's name. She was already off to a bad start. Brooke wondered where Aya was. Had she gone back around to the room or was she sitting in the stands now? She wished she had time to look around for her. It didn't occur to Brooke that she wouldn't have been able to spot Aya from that distance anyway. She sat down in the egg shaped chair and placed the headset on. Brooke was trying her hardest to ignore the crowd and concentrate on what she needed to do. Her face was pale, but she was starting to feel slightly normal. Aya had been right about feeling better once she got on the layer, although she hadn't believed her at the time. This was about the time her ear's started to function and she listened to the announcer. It was also the start of the match.

"It's the 11th match of the second division of the Kanto games!" he yelled out with the crowd cheering once more, "This fight is between Deus Otsuka Yuji and her angel Scout and Deus Brooke Miyoko and her angel Kura! This is Otsuka-san's second time battling in the Kanto games, and Brooke-san's first year! Will seniority help Otsuka-san and Scout advance to victory, or are Brooke-san and Kura this year's fantastic rookies? Let's find out! Angel entry!"

"Scout! Fight through the tough path and prevail! The angel descends!" Otsuka yelled throwing her angel into the large layer. Scout did a series of complicated spins in the air before landing on the layer with a powerful thud. She had dark brown hair and eyes that seemed silver in the light. Scout was wearing camo cargo pants and heavy black boots. She wore a white tube top and camo hat. Brooke guessed just from her landing that she was a heavyweight with an emphasis on power, although she didn't look too much taller than Kura.

"Fly with the guidance of your heart! Kura, do your best! The angel descends!" Brooke yelled as she tossed Kura into the layer. She had never fought on a layer this big, but she had Kura tumble and spin in what she thought looked like an impressive way. Brooke took a deep breath and got ready for the match. Her fight was really coming back now.

"And now- Angelic fight!" the announcer yelled just loudly enough to be heard over the crowd. Brooke was surprised they still had so much energy even after sitting there for so long. She didn't have much time to dwell on anything because she saw Scout charging.

Scout was running towards Kura. It wasn't as fast as Kura could go, but if she hit her the damage would be immense. Brooke got ready to dodge, but wasn't quite sure what to do. She could attack and try to slowly get Scout's power to decrease, but then she would risk Kura getting hit more and taking more damage. Brooke was trying to calculate how she would be able to get Scout thrown out of the layer, but had to stop when Scout was practically on top of Kura. Kura jumped to the side and swung a hard kick at her opponent. Scout easily jumped out of the way.

Scout tried to hit Kura with a punch straight to the head. Kura ducked down and tried a leg sweep. Neither attack worked. Scout missed as Kura went down, but Scout jumped on Kura as she dodged the blow. Scout grabbed Kura's arm and started to pull her up. Brooke was able to get Kura away by quickly tripping Scout. The angel hit the layer even though it barely did a blip of damage on her points. Brooke had Kura jumped away from her. She was at a loss of what to do. Scout could attack back almost as fast as Kura and with much more damaging blows. The only option Brooke could think of to get her out was to have her have a layer out. Was it even possible?

Brooke could tell Otsuka was incredibly talented at thinking on her feet and assessing the situation quickly. Brooke could barely tell what was going on and what Scout was going to do. She wasn't used to the layer being this large and being so far away from the fight. This was something she could do nothing about, and she just had to get used to it. Quite fast too because Scout was continuing on her rampage towards Kura. Brooke had Kura start running towards her also. For the moment all Brooke could think to do was keep attacking and hope for some weak spot to appear.

Now with angels so close to each other Scout pulled her arm back. Knowing Kura's arms were shorter Brooke made her jump up high. So high Kura soared right over Scout and she landed behind her. Before Scout could figure react Kura kicked her hard right in the middle of the back. Even though it did more damage than the first time Scout fell it was not nearly enough. She would have to make her attacks much harder if she wanted to win. Scout recovered fast and stood back up, but did not run at Kura this time. She was waiting for Kura now, and this made Brooke nervous. What would Scout do when she started running? Was Otsuka planning something? Had she figured out a weakness Kura had? Would she be expecting something? What kind of attack should she try? What would do the most damage? Should she start the attack at all? Would it be better to keep waiting until Scout attacked her instead? How was she going to win this? Why, just why did so many questions have to keep popping up in her mind?

It was quickly getting to be too much for Brooke. She knew she was thinking it over too hard, yet she couldn't stop herself from doing it. Everything she imagined Kura doing resulted in Scout counter-attacking and winning the match. She didn't want to risk that. Brooke really would be as bad as Renjiro said if she couldn't get past this. To lose on the first battle would be the worst, and not to mention incredibly embarrassing. The crowd had quieted down as they thought it strange that neither angel was doing anything. It finally dawned on Brooke that Scout wasn't going to attack again no matter how long she waited. After a moment of hesitation Kura restarted the fighting.

She ran as fast she possibly could towards her opponent. Scout did not move an inch and Brooke thought of her match against Renjiro and Tanpopo. Brooke knew it wasn't going to be the same so she stayed at full speed. When she was almost upon Scout, Kura jumped the last little distance forward with her arm pulled back. Scout dodged, but the attack just brushed a little of her cheek. She grabbed Kura's arm before she had a chance to pull it back. With a tremendous force she whirled around in a single circle before slamming Kura onto the layer. Brooke narrowed her eyes as she watched Kura's points dropped considerably. He couldn't but think Otsuka was planning that to happen.

A spike of rebellion arose in Brooke and Kura jumped up much faster than Otsuka would have anticipated. With a strong kick Kura hit the side of Scout's head, sending her stumbling to the side. While Scout was recoiling from the hit Kura went for the attack again. Her knee sunk into Scout's stomach and she forcefully pushed her down on the layer. Recovering from the shock Scout regained herself and jumped back away from Kura. Even though the three attacks had been pretty strong they did just under the one slam that Kura had taken. Now Scout was charging again, and Kura matched her.

It was an eruption of attacks, and Brooke thought herself pretty lucky to come away with Kura only getting hit once. She had been able to avoid the last hit by jumping into the air once more. However it did not have the same result as the last time. Once Kura had taken the leap, Scout jumped up as high as she could and clutched onto Kura's leg. Both angels were quickly plummeting towards the white metal. Brooke's instinct kicked in and without really knowing what had happened she found Kura soaring in the air with Scout hanging tightly onto her leg still. The crowd went wild.

Brooke concentrated on keeping Kura flying, but Scout was making it difficult as she was actually climbing up Kura. It was difficult to try and keep Scout from getting any further and stay in the air. Brooke bit her lip as Scout caught a hold of Kura's arm. With desperation Kura started to fly around sporadically and intensely to try and shake Scout off. If she fell from this distance she would definitely lose the rest of her points. Knowing that victory could be this close Brooke was doing everything she could to get Scout to lose her grip.

It was apparent that Otsuka also knew that if Scout fell the match was over. It was why she was trying just as hard to hold on to Kura as Kura was struggling to get Scout off. The angels were thrashing about in the air and the struggle was so great that Brooke didn't pay attention t how close to the edge of the layer she was. It almost resulted in a layer out for both angels, but luckily she got her bearings and had Kura fly back into the center. Unfortunately Scout was making more process than Kura was. Then Brooke saw Otsuka's plan far too late.

If Kura fell also she would most likely be unable to battle anymore and Brooke would lose the match. Yet she was able to fly and so wouldn't fall. Otsuka was trying to change this. Scout took a daring jump onto Kura's back so that her arms were wrapped tightly around Kura with her wings pinned to her back. Now she was completely immobilized. Horror-struck, Brooke watched as both angels slowly started to descend before plunging down to the layer. Brooke was doing her best to get Scout off, and the last few seconds were ticking by. Her eyes closed and she gripped her skirt tightly. She could hear the crowd gasping and yelling as the end was coming. It would be over very soon.

"_No! It's not going to end yet!" _Brooke rebelled silently. Her eyes opened and simultaneously Kura's wings broke from the bondage of Scout's arms. They were so close to the layer that if Brooke had not reacted at that moment, she would've lost the match for sure. Scout was about to hit, but Brooke wasn't going to miss the opportunity. Kura caught Scout by the arm and pulled her back up as she soared high above the layer once more. With a swift and violent motion Kura sent Scout down to met the layer with a sickening thud of finality. Scout's body crumpled against the layer and remained motionless. There was a split second of absolute silence before the crowd erupted once again.

Brooke let out a shaky sigh of relief and sank back into the chair. She had won, she had won her first match at the Kanto games. It wasn't just another match against Aimee, Aya, or Jacques, it had been a true battle against someone who had been much more skilled than her. Yet she had worked it out and she had won. It was a feeling quite similar to the first time Brooke had competed in a tennis tournament and won first place. That had been years ago, but she could remember the feeling very well. Brooke knew she would also remember this moment as well for a good long time.

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Brooke's face went pale white and she was gripping onto the bar in front of her with her life. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach as she flew towards the ground, but she loved every moment of it. The roller coaster reached the bottom of the hill and quickly went up another small one before twisting to the left. Ever the crazy one, Jacques had his arms up in the air and with a crazy smile on his face. Brooke wondered if it hurt because it looked like he was being jerked around pretty hard. One would not be able to tell by the look on his face.

In a brief twenty seconds the rest of the ride was over and Brooke got out of her seat with a great rush of adrenaline. It was later in the afternoon of the same day. Brooke had joined Aya, who had gone into the stands, after her match. They watched Jacques beat his opponent and to Brooke it appeared he did it very easily. They met Aimee after and she told them she had made it also. Brooke had rushed to see the rest of the results and without much surprise she discovered that Renjiro had passed also. Brooke had never seen him fight, but if he could boast so much about being good he must have some talent. Brooke really wished she would've had the time to see his match.

Now they were at the local amusement park to celebrate. It was Jacques's turn to choose the ride and that's how they ended up on the roller coaster. Aimee and Shino, who was chaperoning, had sat behind them. Aya had bluntly revealed that she held no good feelings towards this particular ride. She told Brooke that the first time she rode it she had gotten sick and had to go home. Even after Brooke's attempt of coaxing her on by telling her it wouldn't happen again did Aya still refuse to accompany them. She mentioned she would wait for them by the exit gate, and that's exactly what they found her leaning on once they got there.

Brooke found it strange that she would go on the even fiercer one Shino picked out next, but didn't say anything. If it was Brooke in the same situation she would've thrown up, and after letting her stomach settle, and go on the ride again just to see what would happen. But then again, maybe that wasn't such a good thing. In fact it would be a pretty stupid thing to do, but it made Brooke laugh as she knew she would've done it anyway. After waiting what seemed forever in line again the group stepped off the coaster. Agreeing to take a break they headed towards one of the small outdoor food places.

Brooke gratefully sat down in one of the chairs. Her feet were hurting so bad from standing in lines for a good portion of the day. It was nice to let them get some rest. Aya sat down her right while Aimee was on her left. Jacques was next to Aya and Shino took the last seat that was left. They all chatted for a moment before a waiter came up to take their drink order. Whoops, Brooke had forgotten to even look at the menu. She hastily took a look and ordered. Eventually the drinks came and Brooke emptied hers quicker than she had ever done before. It had not been up until then that she realized just how thirsty she had been. During the meal she got multiple refills, and it didn't take too long for the obvious to happen. Brooke excused herself to the nearby restroom.

Minutes later she washed her hands and dried them, returning to the mirror to check her hair. She ran her fingers through and fixed the little windblown strands. Her hair had gotten longer. Brooke couldn't decide if she wanted to get it cut soon or just let it stay the length it was at now. She gave her shoulders a shrug and walked towards the exit of the restroom. As she was walking out she heard a laugh and her head couldn't help but turn in that direction. She gasped and jumped behind a large nearby plant. She peeked out cautiously to see a sight that sent a chill down her spine.

That Renjiro was appearing everywhere she went, it seemed. But what frightened Brooke the most was that, even though it was small, he was smiling. Brooke had never seen him smile or thought he even had the ability to. He had not been the one who was laughing. Brooke's head cocked to the side slightly as she stared at the younger girl who was walking next to him. She was nine, ten maybe? Her dark blonde hair was in pigtails and her skin was unusually pale. Her grin was wide and she looked up at Renjiro with such a happy look on her face. Brooke wondered how anyone could be that cheerful around him. She could sort of stand being around him, but to laugh and smile like that? It would be quite a feat to accomplish. The two walked on and only after Brooke realized others were watching her as well did she go back to the table.

"Aya-chan, Jacques-kun, can I talk to you guys for a second?" she asked her two friends. They exchanged curious glances, but they both nodded and followed her under a nearby tree. Brooke leaned against in. Aya looked at her and Jacques folded his arms.

"What is it?" he asked. Brooke took a moment before answering. She wasn't sure how to put it into words. However, she knew that she had to say something so she spat out the first thing that came to her mind.

"What do you guys know about Suzushima-san? Like his past and his family and stuff?" Brooke told them. The reaction from Jacques was immediate.

"Why in the world are you asking about that jerk now? In fact, why do you even talk about him at all? He's not worth any of our time!" his face narrowed in anger and he looked infuriated that Brooke had even brought up the topic at all. She recoiled. She had forgotten that Renjiro was one of the few people Jacques could not stand. Luckily Aya took over.

"Jacques-kun calm down. Don't take your dislike for him out on her. It was just a question." she explained as she placed a hand on his shoulder. Jacques's angry expression, lessened, but it wasn't hard to see he did not like this topic. Aya turned her gaze on Brooke. "Although I would like to know too why you are bringing him up at this particular moment?"

"Well…" Brooke started. This was harder than she thought it would be, "I actually just saw him when I cam out of the restroom. I never imagined I would see him here, but that wasn't the strangest thing. There was a younger girl with him, and I have no idea who it is. It was so weird, she was smiling up at him like he was some kind of miracle."

"Weird indeed. Who would want to smile at that thing?" Jacques interrupted. Aya gave him and look and Brooke continued on.

"It wasn't just that, he was smiling at her too. Smiling! An-"

"Wait, he was smiling?! The world must be going to end soon." Jacques interrupted again.

"Shush! Let her finish!" Aya told him and Jacques rolled his eyes at her, but went silent.

"Okay, as I was saying I saw him smiling and I began wondering who this girl was. I thought you guys might know something since you've known him longer." Brooke finished.

"The only thing we know about him is his name and the fact that he's a total-"

"Jacques-kun you're not helping at all." Aya interrupted him this time in a stern voice, "It is something strange. If you say she's younger I don't she'd be a friend of his. She could be his sister, but I don't ever recall him mentioning he had any siblings."

"After his parents had him I don't think they'd want anymore." There came a hard slap on the arm from Aya. Jacques gave her a look and she put her hands on her hips. Brooke actually thought it was funny for some reason. "BUT he wouldn't mention anything to us anyway, so for all we know he could have twenty little siblings running all around." Jacques finished with a glance seeking approval form Aya. She lowered her hands and nodded.

"So you guys don't have any ideas?" Brooke asked them, feeling a bit disappointed. The two of them nodded in agreement. Then an idea sprung into Brooke's head.

"Aya-chan can you ask your mom? Wouldn't she know something?"

"Not really. Isn't that kind of stuff supposed to be confidential? Like if he doesn't want anyone to know about what goes on in his family, he has the right to keep it secret? I doubt she would tell me anything if she knows it." Aya said. Brooke sighed.

"I would like to know who the girl is myself, though." she added. Brooke looked up to the sky through the spaces between the leaves.

"I wonder…"


	8. Sing me a Song

**Chapter Eight: **_**Sing me a Song**_

**Disclaimer:** **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me. Also, in this chapter there are different songs featured in another CLAMP anime, Card Captor Sakura and its movies. I do not own any of the songs; all rights go to their artists.**

**A/N: Hello again. Wow, this turned out to be a long chapter. It really wasn't supposed to be so long, but it just kept coming to me. I've never been too good at angel battles, so I told myself to keep writing and I think it came out pretty well. I've always wanted to do a chapter where the characters sing, so I though this would be a good one. I realize the romanji parts wouldn't be too interesting to read. It's better if you have the music going in the background. Brooke sings Ashita e no Melody, Aya sings Hitorijime, Aimee sings Tobira wo Akete, and Jacque does a wonderful rendition of Okashi no Uta. Conan originally wasn't in the group, but he just sort of needed to be there to make Aimee join along as well. I like how those two mesh. Please R&R! Chapter nine is one I've been waiting to do for a while, so I hope to have it out in a week or two. That'll probably be a record for me!**

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"_So you guys don't have any ideas?" Brooke asked them, feeling a bit disappointed. The two of them nodded in agreement. Then an idea sprung into Brooke's head._

"_Aya-chan can you ask your mom? Wouldn't she know something?"_

"_Not really. Isn't that kind of stuff supposed to be confidential? Like if he doesn't want anyone to know about what goes on in his family, he has the right to keep it secret? I doubt she would tell me anything if she knows it." Aya said. Brooke sighed._

"_I would like to know who the girl is myself, though." she added. Brooke looked up to the sky through the spaces between the leaves._

"_I wonder…"_

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Brooke stepped out into the light for the second time. Her heart was still beating against her chest, but her nerves were not running nearly as high as they had been the last time. As she walked towards the chair she did it much more eagerly, and with more confidence. It was not only because she had worked even harder this week in practice, but she had just finished watching an amazing battle that Jacques had just won. This time she had been up in the stands, which was more impressive than seeing it on a television screen. Brooke had to admit that Jacques was a bit different on the layer.

Off the layer he was calm and very easy-going. At times he was a bit childlike and sometimes played small jokes. Brooke remembered one time he snatched Shizuko out of Aya's bag, and switched her with a ridiculously ugly action figure stuffed into an angel outfit. After Aya had recovered her angel and stopped beating Jacques over the head with the bag, they all had a good laugh at it. On the layer his whole demeanor changed, almost like Aya's. His face became serious, as did his aura. It was easy to see he was concentrating fully on what had to be done, and there was no place for jokes. Jacques greatly loved playing Angelic Layer though, Brooke knew without a doubt.

With that inspiring fight, Brooke was ready. Aya and Renjiro had yet to fight, and Aimee's fight would start in a few minutes or so from the rough schedule they had been given. It was always hard to guess what time someone would be fighting because all the fights varied in lengths. Her first day Brooke had watched one that had only been two minutes long. It had been in the first division, and absolutely amazing. However, the winner had lost today. This showed Brooke that just because you won match, doesn't mean the rest will go smoothly.

She was glad she realized this, because she had felt herself starting to get a bit cocky about her abilities. There were still many great players out there, and she still had to fight Renjiro. She couldn't lose no matter what. Brooke hadn't planned on entering the tournament, but now she had that goal to strive to. She was going to get there- she just had to. Brooke took a deep breath as she sat down in the chair and put the headset on. There was no more planning, no more time to practice, this was it. It was another point to pass to keep on going. For Brooke, every fight was monumental. She held Kura tight as she heard the announcer inhale.

"We're continuing with the second day of matches for the Kanto regional second division! We've seen many great fights today, none of them failing to disappoint. Now we move onto the fifth battle! This time the fight is between Deus Arari Moriyo and her angel Verde, against Deus Brooke and her angel Kura! This is the first year for both Deus's, but we wouldn't be able to tell just by watching. Both Arari-san and Brooke-san are incredibly skilled and have a strong drive to fight. Which will come out on top today? Let's find out! Angel entry!" he yelled into the microphone.

"Fly with the guidance of your heart! Kura, do your best! The angel descends!" Brooke went first this time. Kura dropped into the layer with more grace than she had before. Brooke gripped the hand rests of the chair tightly. Arari had about as much experience as she did, and must've had someone like Aya helping her as well. She thought for a moment that the battle might feel like she was going against herself. She had to wait to see Arari's angel though.

"Verde, with your grace find the way to overcome the obstacles! Don't give in! The angel descends!" Arari yelled as she threw her angel into the layer. Verde landed in the layer with such grace that Kura's drop looked like she was flailing around crazily. Brooke bit her lower lip. Just because the other opponents moves were prettier didn't mean they were better. In fact Verde didn't look as impressive as Brooke thought she was. She looked really pretty, but not strong.

Brooke could quite safely guess what her name meant. The angel was draped head to toe in green. Verde had shining lime green hair with matching sparkling eyes. A soft layered green dress fell gently around her knees, and small little bells jingled on the end of the forest green bow around her waist. She had on delicate slippers with a bit of sparkling beading. Bracelets and iridescent green fairy wings finished her look. Yes, very pretty, if not overusing one color a bit. However, Brooke could tell her stats weren't in strength. If anything she had an emphasis on speed, or balance. She smiled- hopefully she could finish this battle in time to go see Aimee's. She didn't realize she was beginning to let her pride make her overconfident.

"And now- Angelic Fight!" the announcer yelled.

In the opposite direction of how her first battle had started, Brooke was the one to charge towards her opponent. Faster, faster, hit harder, hit with more power, was what she was thinking. Brooke carefully watched as Kura charged. Verde had not moved, except to change her standing position. Verde stood up perfectly straight with her head high, and her hands gently folded on top of each other. Even as Kura got closer and closer, the angel did nothing but watch. This instantly irritated Brooke to the millionth level. It reminded her of her fight with Renjiro, and then of her last fight. What was it with the Deus's just having their angel stand there?! Was it a requirement or something?

The irritation caused Kura to push her speed even faster, much faster than before. When she was close enough her arm pulled back as far as it would go. When her fist was just about to make contact with Verde's delicate skin, the other angel dodged. Needles to say, Brooke expected this. Verde had jumped to the side so Brooke sent a kick in her direction. It made a little contact, but not enough to really do anything. Verde had moved out of the way too fast. Brooke had been right. Verde's emphasis really was set on speed. Still, Brooke doubted that she could go as fast as Kura.

Verde had moved farther away although she was in the same position she had been in before. Back straight, head high, and hands folded. Kura went after her again with the same tactic. A punch which Verde dodged, before another kick. Brooke made sure to have her kick farther. However, Arari expected this as Brooke expected the dodge. Verde was well out of Kura's range. Annoyed, Broke didn't stop attacking. Another kick, a punch, a quick combo, a jumping attack, two more punches, a shift to the side, a leg sweep- Verde dodged them all with an unnatural ease.

After finding out that it was impossible to hit the green angel, Brooke had Kura jump back. She had to try something different, and something Arari wouldn't expect. To do that she had to make her believe that she was going to keep doing the same thing. Kura dashed at Verde once more. She started with the same punch, and then the same kick. She followed with a couple different attacks, all of which missed. Kura jumped back again. She proceeded to do the exact same thing. Punch, kick, a few moves, before retreating. By this point Brooke was beginning to wonder how Arari was expecting to win.

Verde hadn't tried to attack even once, or showed any desire to. Was she planning on having Kura layer out? It would be impossible. The two angels were in the middle of the layer, and Brooke wasn't stupid enough to get so close that Verde could hit Kura out. She shouldn't be thinking about losing anyway. She had to win. This was the last time for this, and Brooke hoped she was the only one who knew what was going to happen. The same attack, and then the jumping back. Brooke couldn't see Arari's face very well, but could imagine that she was trying hard to figure out just what in the world Brooke was planning.

Brooke smiled wider as she felt very proud of her plan. This was where Arari would get caught! The crowd, which had grown very quiet in confusion over why nothing was happening, would soon cheer loudly. Kura's eyes narrowed and she gave a small yell as she charged forward. Verde waited like she had all the other times. Brooke laughed quietly to herself. This was when the pace of the fighting changed. There was the punch, and as she started the kick Verde moved just like she had in the past. In the blink of an eye Kura's foot was back on the ground and she was using it to hop around her.

Brooke could tell Arari had no idea what was happening as Verde lost her composure for a second as she stumbled. Now on the angel's side, Kura sent a hard kick right into Verde's stomach. The green angel started to fall to the side, but Kura wasn't finished yet. Before Verde could fall over, Kura kicked her again. She hit her so hard under the chin that it actually forced her up again, and only stumbling backwards. Going to take the chance to hit again Kura went for a punch.

However as she got close Brooke couldn't help but gasp. She had no idea what was happening. One moment Verde was there, the next there was some flashes of green cloth, and the next Kura was skidding along the layer. The crowd certainly was cheering by now, although Brooke was not happy. How in the world had she recovered so fast? She couldn't even see the angel attacking. Apparently she had attacked quite a couple times because Kura had lost a lot of her points, about half. In four seconds she had gone from dominating the match to losing. Brooke had trouble wrapping her mind around what had gone down.

Kura shakily stood up, her arms showing signs of bruising. Shoot, that plan was over. Now Arari knew what Brooke had done, and wouldn't fall for any tricks like that again. Plus she had underestimated Verde's speed. Along with being more graceful, she was also faster. This confused Brooke more as well. Verde was so quick she could just charge at Kura and attack her so quickly that she would lose within a minute or so. Oh how embarrassing that would be! Yet if that was the case, why hadn't it happened? Was Arari just toying around with her? Was she even taking Brooke serious at all? Was this match just a big joke for her?

Brooke's heart sank deep. She knew she needed to focus, but she had just taken a big reality check that was hard to swallow. What would be even harder to swallow was the bragging and teasing she would get form Renjiro if she lost now. Brooke, who had looked down at the ground for a moment, looked back up to continue the fight. Verde, who had lost about a third of her points, had returned to just standing there. Brooke was starting to get Arari's plan though. Force the opponent to attack, and then find an opening to unleash a flurry of fast attacks before they are able to dodge or counterattack. It was a good plan.

How would she combat that amazing speed, and how was Verde able to go so fast anyway? If Arari had only been playing for the same amount of time as she had, then she was able to learn incredibly fast. Brooke thought she had been doing well for a rookie, but now someone else was proving to her that there were other rookies better than her. Still, couldn't there be a weakness somewhere? Verde had wings, could she fly like Kura? Brooke had been thinking they might be for decoration only as the things looked pretty weak. However, she had believed Verde only to look pretty without any strength. Look where that put her now.

With a deep breath Brooke got ready again. If she was going to win then something had to happen. If both angels just stood there then nothing was going to occur. She had learned by now through experience that Verde was not going to move. Brooke had a vague idea of something she could try, but knew it would probably only play out correctly in her head. It was worth a shot. If nothing else, she would go down swinging. Getting ready, Kura went for the green angel. On her back her wings widened a bit and gave a small flap. Brooke wasn't sure if Arari noticed it or not.

She hoped Arari would be a bit stunned when Kura did the exact same punch and kick plan as before. It was a repeat of the beginning of the battle. Except this time Kura refused to stop attacking. The angels moved all over the layer. All of Kura's attacks were dodged by Verde's graceful movements. The crowd had grown rather silent. This match was shaping up to be quite odd. There had been that moment of contact, but other than that it was just dodges and pointless assaults. As the two angels continued to move, Brooke watched carefully. The angels got into such a rhythm that she could almost swear that they were dancing. She could tell that if anything good came out of this battle it would be better movements. Just in the time she started fighting Kura's moves had lost a lot of unnecessary movements.

This was not what she was focusing on. She was waiting for Arari to break, for her to get tired of dodging and attack. Just when Brooke was wondering if it would happen, it did. Brooke was glad she had been watching carefully. Arari was only able to hit her twice before Brooke quickly jumped back with her wings unfolding. As soon as she landed her wings beat hard and Kura jumped towards her opponent. It was so fast even Brooke had trouble keeping up with what was happening. Verde was truly caught off guard this time. Brooke hit her twice in the face, and kicked her in the side so that she fell over. Brooke wasn't sure what would happen when Verde got up, and was surprised by what she did.

Verde's wings fluttered and she was high in the air in seconds. Brooke knew she was on a roll and followed her without hesitation. Now with her points lower than Kura's, Verde began a furious battle. Similar to on the ground, the angels danced in the air. Now it was Kura's turn to try and dodge the attacks. Brooke found that Verde was not as capable as flying as Kura was. Her moves were much slower, and it was easier to counterattack. Apparently Arari noticed this as well. Verde continued to try and get back to the ground. No way was Brooke going to let her.

Every time she started to descent, Kura dashed under her and attacked. The closer to the ground Verde tried to get the high she was forced to go. Brooke felt the desperation of her opponent. Slowly and surely she was taking points off Verde. This was it! She had broken through the doom and was making her comeback. She had Verde trapped! Brooke was so glad Aya had forced to keep on practicing flying again and again even though she had wanted to fight instead. In this moment it was paying off a thousand times. It was going to be over soon! Or that's what she thought before Verde disappeared. Brooke was momentarily confused, but then she realized Verde had flown high so that she was blocked by the lights.

Brooke knew it would be a stupid thing to try and look into them. Now this gave Verde the advantage. Kura flew around and around as Brooke tried to figure out Arari's plan. Then suddenly something shot forward, Verde, and crashed into Kura. Both angels started to plunge towards the ground, and each only recovered in time to land on the ground. Okay, Brooke had not expected that. Luckily, Verde had taken some damage from the hit as well. Unluckily each angel only had a bit left. It could all be over in one hit. Brooke had to make sure that she was not that one.

Brooke looked over at Arari, and their eyes met. On the layer Kura's and Verde's were locked as well. They all knew what was going to happen. They did not know what the result would be. Brooke readied herself. This battle was going to end in less than ten seconds. The crowd sensed something as well. They had started cheering when the fighting had started in the air, but now they were waiting in anticipation. It was left to the imagination what would occur. There was second of complete silence before the chain broke.

Kura and Verde charge at each other with no regrets. Both were going at full speed with nothing left to stop them. Brooke's breathing was fast and her heart had restarted its pounding. Wait, just wait for it. You try to move to soon and you'll fail. Get in the pace and pay attention. This is what she told herself. The angels flew fast at each other. Within seconds they were both right on top of each other. Their arms were pulled back, before each being released by a rocket. Then something made contact. Brooke couldn't believe it. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, and then gazed up at the scene.

Both angels had hit their mark, but who had hit it harder? Everyone's breath was drawn in deep as they waited. The second before her angel fell was like eternity. As Brooke watched her go down she let out the air she was holding in. Verde fell onto the layer and moved no longer. Brooke dropped onto her knees, only a blip of her points remaining. It was all because her arms were just a bit longer than Verde's. She had been able to hit her just that much stronger.

The crowd erupted into screams and Brooke let out a laugh of relief. She stood up and took off the headset. To her surprise her legs had a hard time supporting her. She had been really nervous. Feeling incredibly light she went and retrieved Kura. Brooke met Arari in the center, and they both smiled at each other as they shook hands. Brooke almost felt like skipping out as she felt so amazing and happy.

She met Aya with a large hug and laughs while Jacques gave her a pat on the back. Then Aya grabbed her wrist and started to pull her along. Until now Brooke had forgotten. Aimee was fighting as well. The three of them hurried over to where she was fighting. Brooke hoped that her fight wasn't over yet because she really wanted to see her sister win. They quickly got into the first division one arena and looked for some seats. Aimee was fighting at the moment. Brooke was glad.

"Here you guys, here are some." Jacques pointed out three seats a few rows down. They quickly filed in with Brooke going first followed by Aya. Jacques was about to sit down when he looked up at the fight, "Oh this doesn't look good."

Brooke hadn't bothered to look at what was happening yet. She had assumed Aimee was doing fine. It was the complete opposite. In fact she looked at the perfect moment, or the worst. Brooke looked at the layer just in time to see the last of Kumiko's points drained with a solid punch in the face. The people around them cheered and stood up, but Brooke, Aya, and Jacques all remained sitting. Brooke's light feeling was replaced with one of despair and sadness. She couldn't imagine what Aimee was feeling. Was this what it was like to lose? Was this how Arari was feeling? Brooke wished she could go down there and walk with her sister out of the arena.

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"Hey how about we go get some ice cream?" Brooke suggested. The matches were finished for the day, and this was about the seventh suggestion she had given. She was trying her best to think of something to do to help cheer Aimee up. Her sister was walking behind her with a very bland look plastered on her face. So far nothing was working.

"It'll make me fat." Aimee responded. Every time Brooke suggested something Aimee responded back with something negative that could come as a result. Brooke was quickly running out of options.

"Then how about we go biking?"

"I'll fall and break a leg." Aimee retorted is a casual, but somber way.

"It's going to start getting colder. How about we get some swimming in?"

"I'll drown."

"Let's go home and make a picnic!"

"I'll accidentally cut myself with the knife."

"You can make the drinks."

"I'll ruin them."

"How could you ruin a drink?" Aya broke in.

"It's me." Aimee told her.

"How about we go dig a hole, hide in it, and stay in there for a week buried under our self pity?" Jacques chimed in.

"Yeah. Sounds good." Aimee agreed.

"Oh come on. You're being pathetic." Brooke said as she lost her patience.

"Yup." was all she got back.

"I don't know what to do with you!" Brooke sighed and folded her arms. She felt bad for Aimee, but she was just taking it past the limit. Standing outside the stadium and arguing over it was getting ridiculous. Brooke was starting to give up on trying to help her sister. She was being completely impossible.

"Oh, I like karaoke!" Jacques added.

"I hat-" Aimee started before someone else interrupted. It was Conan.

"Karaoke is great fun. Aimee-chan you've told me you haven't gone yet. We should all go." he said.

"All right karaoke it is!" Jacques said cheerfully which drowned out Aimee's plead. Aya and Brooke each took one of Aimee's arms and started to walk her down the sidewalk. Jacques and Conan walked ahead of them, discussing which songs were the best to sing.

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"So which song do you want to sing?"

"I can't believe you're making me go first!"

"You forced me here. The least you can do is sing first. You should consider yourself lucky because I'm letting you pick your song. If you want I could choose one for you." Aimee raised her eyebrow.

"No!" Brooke sound loudly, "No, that's okay."

"Choose quickly then." Aimee told her with a smile that made it feel like she was enjoying this in some weird way. Sister torment, maybe that was all Aimee needed to feel better. Brooke scanned through the list of songs, and picked one she knew well enough. Brooke's singing voice was fine, but she had only really sung with Aya when they listened to the radio. She really didn't sing for crowds, even crowds made up of just her friends. She was more nervous now than she had been at the start of her match today. Yet she couldn't hesitate. The music was going to start soon. Brooke grabbed the microphone and watched the screen.

"Todokete kono koe wo~"

Oh shoot. She had already messed up. Brooke had forgotten that the lyrics started right away without much of a musical introduction. She had to keep going, and the group didn't really seem to care.

"Tsutaete ima sugu ni isoide koko ni kite kanjite mada minu chikara shinjite hoshii no yume no tsudzuki ga hora utatte'ru ashita e no MERODI~!"

Wow that was a long note to hold. Brooke took this moment where there was a small musical solo to catch her breath. So far she wasn't doing so bad. Still, unless she was really good at doing something, she constantly felt like she was under pressure. Brooke tried hard to shake off this feeling. The whole reason they were there was to have fun, not to criticize every part of her singing.

"Todokete kono koe wo tsutaete ima sugu ni isoide koko ni kite fushigi na natsukashii kodou kikoete-iru deshou? Tooi kioku wo ima tsunaide'ku monogatari ga hajimaru~"

There was another long note, and then a chance to catch her breath. Brooke was glad she chose this song. It really wasn't that hard to sing.

"Ienakatta kotoba ryoute ni afurete'ru~"

Eek, that last syllable was high. Maybe when they were done with this she should try using her voice a bit more.

"Kokoro no DAIARI- mekureba itsudemo anata ga soba ni ita no~ Mienai yakusoku de deatta watashi-tachi oshiete sono wake wo ano hi no chikai wo ima mo oboete-iru deshou? Miageta kono sora ni doko made mo kibou no niji wo kakeyou~"

What in the world was that? Brooke turned to head to see that Jacques had started to clap in beat. The other followed suit. Brooke quickly turned back because she had started to blush. It wasn't bad they were clapping, but she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

"Todokete kono koe wo tsutaete ima sugu ni isoide koko ni kite kanjite mune no binetsu wo wakatte-ita deshou? Yume no tsudzuki ga hora utatte'ru ashita e no MERODI~!"

Ah good. There was a longer break here. Brooke quickly took a few deep breaths to regain her normal breathing rhythm.

"Koi suru kiseki himitsu wo hodoite anata no moto e hashiru~ Todokete sono koe wo tsutaete ima sugu ni hajimete mita you na shiranai kagayaku mirai sagashi ni ikimashou nanimo osorenaide issho nara kujikezu ni ikeru kara~"

Here it was! This was the last stanza. Brooke was proud of herself for doing so well. Now she had to finish it off with an amazing last few lines.

"Todokete kono koe wo tsutaete ima sugu ni isoide koko ni kite kanjite mune no binetsu wo wakatte-ita deshou? Yume no tsudzuki ga hora utatte'ru?? Ashita e no MERODI~!"

_(("Carry my voice to him, Tell him right away, Hurry, come here, Feel the unseen power, I want you to believe in it. The continuation of the dream is - look! Singing a melody to tomorrow._

Carry my voice to him, Tell him right away, Hurry, come here, You hear the mysterious beat that's reminiscent of days gone by, don't you? Linking distant memories, now the story begins.

Words I couldn't say are spilling out into my hands. Whenever I turn the pages of the diary to my heart, I realize you were always there by my side.

We met because of an unseen promise. Please tell me the reason. You still remember the oath we swore that day, don't you? Let us paint a rainbow of hope to the very ends of the sky above.

Carry my voice to him, Tell him right away, Hurry, come here, Feel the slight fever rising in my heart. You knew, didn't you? The continuation of the dream is - look! Singing a melody to tomorrow.

The miracle of loving- I'll let out the secret and run to you.

Carry that voice, Tell him right away. Let us go in search of the shining future that's still as unknown to us as if we've just layed eyes on it. Don't be afraid of anything. As long as we're together, we can walk on without stumbling.

Carry my voice to him, Tell him right away. Hurry, come here. Feel the slight fever rising in my heart; You knew, didn't you? The continuation of the dream is - look! Singing a melody to tomorrow."))

It was over. Every started to clap for her, even Aimee. Brooke turned around to face them again. A bit of red was still lingering on her face, but she was smiling now. She gave a little bow and put the microphone back on its stand. The machine reset itself as Brooke took her seat. She grabbed some of the snacks.

"That was really amazing Brooke-chan. I didn't know you could sing that well." Jacques complimented. Brooke was happy he wasn't going to joke around with it. She knew that he wouldn't mean anything he said, but it would make her a bit uneasy.

"Thanks." Brooke managed. Her continued to thump against her chest. She felt as if she had been talking for hours without stopping. Overall she was a bit flushed, but it felt great.

"Soooo," Jacques dragged out, "I think it's Aimee's turn!"

"I guess it's better to get it over with." she replied after a sigh.

"That's the spirit!" Conan responded, raising his fist into the a bit. Aimee gave him a look, although she was smiling, before heading up to the machine. Brooke watched her scroll through the songs. After a moment she finally decided. Aimee took the microphone and the music started. It took Brooke a moment to recognize, but she finally did.

"It's all right daijoubu DAIJOUBU daijoubu kiseki datte okoseru. Here we go! Ikou yo ikou yo ikou yo tsubasa hiroge. Kitto nani ka ga nani ka ga doko ka de deaeru hi o matteru. DO! DO! DO! DREAMING! DREAMING! Soshite tobira ga hiraku yo~"

Brooke was a bit amazed. Aimee had always said she never really liked to sing. Well she might not have liked it, but was pretty good at it. Brooke could tell she had a bit of trouble finding the right places to breathe, but was doing fine otherwise.

"IZA tonaru to nani mo ienai shaberitai no ni koe mo kiki takute kokoro ga ne awateteru. Aoi sora ni hikouki kumo tsunaida te ni waite kuru POWER. Doko datte yuke sou da yo. Kaze ni notte~"

To Brooke's surprise, Aimee was starting to get into it. She was swaying her body a bit and was trying harder to make the song sound really good. Jacques was a genius. This actually seemed to be making her feel better.

"It's all right daijoubu DAIJOUBU daijoubu kiseki datte okoseru. Here we go! Ikou yo ikou yo ikou yo tsubasa hiroge. Kitto nani ka ga nani ka ga doko ka de deaeru hi o matteru. DO! DO! DO! DREAMING! DREAMING! Soshite tobira ga hiraku yo~"

The song was over halfway done now. Brooke leaned back against the couch and looked to her right. The others were enjoying this too. She was glad. Brooke turned back to Aimee with a smile.

"Nandemo nai koishi de sae fushigi da yo ne houseki ni kawaru. Isshoni ne miteru dake de minna hikaru~ Top secret daisuki na DAISUKI na daisuki na shunkan ga fuete yuku. Tottemo chiisana CHIISANA chiisana tane ni natte. Kitto kokoro no doko ka de ookina hana ga saki hajimeteru. DO! DO! DO! DREAMING! DREAMING! Soshite sekai ha hiraku~"

Here it was, the last part. Brooke felt sad because she really wanted to hear more. Then she remembered the other still had to go as well.

"Daijoubu DAIJOUBU daijoubu kiseki datte okoseru. Here we go ikou yo ikou yo ikou yo tsubasa hiroge. Kitto nani ka ga nani ka ga doko ka de deaeru hi wo matteru.  
DO! DO! DO! DREAMING! DREAMING! Soshite tobira ga hiraku yo~"

_((It's all right! It's all right! It's all right! It's all right! Miracles can happen. Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Spread your wings. I'm sure something, something, is out there somewhere, just waiting for us to find it. Do! Do! Do! Dreaming! Dreaming! And then the door will open..._

_When I'm troubled, I don't say a thing, even though I want to talk to you, and want to hear your voice. My heart's confused. Vapor trails in the blue sky... Power welling up from my hand in yours... I feel like I can go anywhere, riding the wind..._

_It's all right! It's all right! It's all right! It's all right! Miracles can happen. Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Spread your wings. I'm sure something, something, is out there somewhere, just waiting for us to find it. Do! Do! Do! Dreaming! Dreaming! And then the door will open..._

_Isn't it wonderfully strange, how even insignificant pebbles can change into gems?  
When we're together, just looking makes everything shine._

_The number of "top secret" moments I just love, love, love, keeps growing and growing, becoming very small, small, small seeds. I just know that somewhere in my heart, they're beginning to bloom into big flowers. Do! Do! Do! Dreaming! Dreaming! And then the world will open..._

_It's all right! It's all right! It's all right! It's all right! Miracles can happen. Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Here we go! Spread your wings. I'm sure something, something, is out there somewhere, just waiting for us to find it. Do! Do! Do! Dreaming! Dreaming! And then the door will open...))_

When the music finished Brooke stood up and clapped louder than all the others. Aimee gave her a matching look to the one she had given Conan, but was still smiling. As she wandered back over to her seat, Aya stood up. All of them gave her a small cheer. It took no time for her to decide on a song, so Brooke figured she must've picked it out while either of them had been singing.

"Atashi wa motto motto motto yokubari wa gamama ni naru kono mama anata wo gyutto tojikometai no mite iru dake omotte 'ru dake to kimete 'ta kedo~"

Brooke knew how well Aya could sing, so she wasn't surprised when she started singing strong right off the bat.

"Hon no chotto demo nagaku kou shite tonari ni itai yo dokka de sugoi juutai shite inai ka na daisuki da yo bureeki wa mou kikanai~ Kotoba no ura Kanjite 'ru dare ka ni tachi-uchi dekinai nara ima dake demo isshun dake demo anata no kokoro wo hitorijime shitai~"

Jacques leaned back against the couch. He rested his arms on the top and was watching with a smile on his face. Brooke stared at him for a second. She couldn't be sure, but she thought he was planning something.

"Mitsumete zutto zutto zutto senobi shite demo oitsukitakute kara kawareru no suki da kedo kodomo ja 'ya na no iihiban kowagari demo ichiban tsuyoi kimochi~ Ki ga tsukeba mado no soto wa minareta itsu mo no keshiki. O-ki ni iri no sakamichi ga senaka wo oshita mirenakatta yokogao mou sorasanai~"

Brooke hunches had been right when she had thought Jacques planning something. In the last few words of the last line Aya had sung he had quickly gotten up and stood up at the front with her. As Aya stopped singing a guitar solo started. Jacques started to air-guitar the solo, and Aya put her hands on her hips. Brooke couldn't help but laugh at it, and neither could anyone else. Halfway through the solo Aya burst out laughing. When it was almost over she pushed Jacques away and her returned to his seat. The words started again, but it was easy to see Aya had a harder time singing as she was still laughing a little.

"Kono kake ni wa zenbu tsugikomu n' da! Yuuki wa koi no iryoku ima kono mune to onaji hayasa de anata no kokoro wo dokidoki sasetai no~ Kotoba no ura Kanjite 'ru dare ka ni tachi-uchi dekinai nara ima dake demo Isshun dake demo anata no kokoro wo hitorijime shitai~"

_((More and more and more, I'm becoming greedy and spoiled. From the way it's going, I want to lock you up tight. I made up my mind at the mere sight and thought of you._

I want to stay like this next to you for even just a bit longer. I wonder if there isn't a terrible traffic jam somewhere.  
I love you so much that the brakes won't work anymore.

Someone please read between my words, because I am no match for you. Even just for now, even just for one moment, I want to keep your heart all to myself.

I've always always always watched you, pushed myself to catch up with you. I love when you play jokes on me, but I'm not a child anymore. Even though I'm most easily scared, I have the strongest feelings for you.

If you noticed, there would always be familiar scenery outside the window. Your favorite slope would be pushed against your back. The other side of me can no longer turn away from you!

This fragment is captured within the whole crowd. Courage is the power of love. Now this will is at the same speed as your beating heart

_Someone please read between my words, because I am no match for you. Even just for now, even just for one moment, I want to keep your heart all to myself.))_

The music got to a close and everyone clapped again. Aya walked back and while Jacques went up she gave him a slap on the back of his head. He stuck his tongue at her, but continued on his way. Brooke couldn't imagine what type of song he was going to sing. She did have a feeling that she was going to laugh though.

The music started and Brooke instantly recognized what song it was. When she was little her dad sang it to her all the time when they were playing, or when she was feeling sad. It had always made her laugh, and the smile had already started.

"You're really going to sing this song?" Aya asked.

"Of course. It's my favorite!" Jacques replied. Aya rolled her eyes, but said no more. Jacques inhaled and began to sing with a bit more force than necessary. Brooke shook her head, but was already laughing.

"Keeki chokoreeto. Purin zerii. Odango karintou. Kukkii aisu kuriimu~ Naze okashi wo taberu no ka? Kimatteru soko ni. Okashi ga aru kara ya~"

Brooke had to put her hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing too hard. Leave to Jacques to choose the most ridiculous song ever. Brooke glanced over at Aimee, whose eyes were closed and her head was turned to the side. She knew this was to keep from laughing too loud like she was doing.

"Okashi okashi oishi, oishi. Okashi okashi ureshi. Okashi okashi tanoshi tanoshi. Okashi okashi yoroshi. Jinsei tanoshi manto na~ Piri kara na koto mo aru yaro kedo. Shiawase no tame ni wa doryoku wo oshi manto na~"

The group was clapping along again. Jacques was really making quite a show out of this. He was dancing all around and his facial expressions were priceless.

"Sore demo tsukareta toki wa, amai mon tabete. Hito yasumi shite mii~ Amai amai umai uwai. Amai awaii deai. Amai kawaii sumuii sumuii. Omai amai walaii. Jinsei iro iro ussha~"

Like in Aya's song there was a guitar solo. As he started to air-guitar again the rest of them stood up. Jacques quickly set the microphone down and went over to the group and encouraged them to dance around. Brooke thought this was all absolutely ridiculous, but began to dance. Once they were moving Jacques rushed back to pick up the microphone and continued his "solo." When he started to sing again, Brooke and the others continued to dance. Oh how stupid they would look if someone looked in the window!

"Okashi okashi oishi, oishi. Okashi okashi ureshi. Okashi okashi tanoshi tanoshi. Okashi okashi yoroshi. Jinsei pante~!"

_((Cake and chocolate. Pudding and jelly. Dumplings and "karintou." Cookies and ice cream._

Why do I eat sweets? Of course it's because the sweets are there!

Sweets are so good, sweets, I'm so happy! Sweets are so fun, sweets are good. You gotta enjoy life!

Sure there's such a thing as spicy hot. But for the sake of happiness ya don't want to regret not trying.

Even when you're tired eat something sweet, and try taking a break!

Sweet and yummy, a sweet meeting. Sweet and amazing, a sweet laugh. Life has so much variety, whoohoo!

Sweets are so good, sweets, I'm so happy! Sweets are so fun, sweets are good. You gotta enjoy life!))

The music ended and the group cheered the loudest cheer yet. Brooke clapped her hands hard. It was truly an amusing performance. Jacques bowed many times and blew kisses. This continued on for a little bit, before finally stopping. Jacques eventually sat back down. Aimee turned her head towards Conan now. Then Brooke, Aya, and Jacques all looked at him as well.

"Hmm?" he asked.

"It's your turn." Aya said.

"I said I would come, but I didn't say I was going to sing." he shrugged. Aimee's response was instant.

"What?" she said loudly, "You dragged me out her and then you're not even going to sing when we all did? I thought this was to make me feel better?"

"You're smiling aren't you?" Conan asked. Aimee turned her head away from him. She hadn't realized it, but she had still been smiling. No one said anything.

"There you go." Conan finished. Aimee turned her head up a bit. Brooke was unsure of what to do at this moment.

"Fine. You don't have to sing." Aimee finally said.

"Sweet." Conan smiled. Aimee gave him a slight hit on the shoulder.

"I'll go again then!" Jacques volunteered. Aya put her hand on his shoulder to stop him. Jacques looked back at her.

"Wait Jacques-kun. I want to go first."

"Aww but-" Jacques started.

"Do a duet!" Brooke suggested. The two of them looked at each other.

"Works for me." Aya agreed.

"Yay!" Jacques cheered.

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"Well that was ultimately refreshing!" Jacques said as he stretched his arms above his head. Brooke, Aya, and Jacques were walking out of the karaoke place. Aimee and Conan had gone ahead so the three of them were walking along towards the exit. On their way they were passing other rooms. Jacques began to take quick peeks in each room as they went along.

"Jacques-kun stop it! That's really bad!" Aya reprimanded incredulously. Jacques faced her.

"Don't worry. I'm just checking to see if anyone's dances moves were as awesome as our's were."

"Most people typically don't dance or air-guitar." Brooke added. Jacques smiled and checked the next room. Brooke watched him as he took a quick look before taking a step forward to continue on his way. Then he practically jumped back to look back in the window.

"Guys, look who it is!" he whispered frantically. Brooke could easily guess who he was talking about. Who else would just happen to be there the same time they were? It was more confusing as to why he was there in the first place. Jacques moved out of the way for Brooke to take a quick peek. Yup, there was again. Renjiro had a habit of popping up everywhere she went. Man how she hated coincidences like this. Even Aya wanted to get a peek. They quickly moved out of the way before Renjiro had a chance to catch them. Aya quickly pulled both of them into a nearby room.

"Hey this is a girl's restroom!" Jacques protested as she closed the door. Aya turned the lock.

"Happy now?"

"Yes. It's certainly interesting in here. What they say is true too, definitely a lot cleaner. Kind of smells like fruit as well."

"Focus!"

"Focus on what Aya-chan? Is something the matter?" Brooke questioned her. Aya had gotten flustered rather quickly once she had seen Renjiro in there. Although he had not been alone. The girl Brooke had seen at the amusement park had been singing, with Renjiro sitting on the couch just watching her.

"W-well…" Aya started. Both Brooke and Jacques gave her a motion to continue talking.

"Brooke-chan you had asked us earlier if we knew anything about Suzushima-san. I kind of sort of actually…found something else…" she muttered.

"You didn't tell us sooner?" Jacques asked.

"Why do you care so much? You hate him the most out of all of us." Aya pointed out.

"I was hoping there was something I could use as blackmail."

"Jacques-kun." Brooke scolded gently. Jacques rolled his eyes.

"Fine. I'll keep confidentiality or whatever." he said disappointedly. Aya took a moment before going on.

"Alright so I know who the girl is, although I'm not sure of her name. Apparently she's Suzushima-san's cousin, and she's been living with him and his parents since she was four. There were complications with her parents, so she hasn't had any contact with them since. The little bit more I know is that she's ill and is in the hospital a lot. From what I can figure these outings where we see him is when she's feeling well enough to go out. Suzushima-san's parents are pilots, and get good pay. However, this girl needs some kind of operation if she wants to get better for good. It's really expensive though. I think Suzushima-san is in the competition for the prize money so he can help pay for it."

"Well doesn't that just make him an angel?" Jacques said as he folded his arm. Brooke could tell his tone was a lot less harsher.

"Is this all accurate?" Brooke asked. Aya nodded and Brooke continued, "Where'd you find this all out. Was it your mom who knew?"

"I was asked by the person who told me not to tell anything other than what I've told you."

"So you know more then?"

"No, I just meant they didn't want the information to be spread everywhere else. It would be bad for Suzushima-san if it got out."

"I don't see how it would be ba-" Brooke started.

"Brooke are you in there?" Aimee knocked on the door.

"Yes."

"Where is Aya-chan and Jacques-kun?"

"Umm…" Brooke hesitated. This was a single bathroom. She couldn't say they were in there, and Jacques shouldn't have been in there in the first place.

"Er, Aya-chan accidentally left her bag in the room. They went back to get it."

"Oh, okay. Well mom's here. She can drop them off. Come to the front when you're done."

"Right." Brooke answered. As they heard her footsteps dying away they all rested against the wall and sighed.


	9. Persuasion

**Chapter Nine: **_**Persuasion**_

**Disclaimer: ****Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me.**

**AN: This chapter was supposed to have been up last week, but I left early Monday for a camp, and was unable to finish it Sunday as I was packing. A week late, but still doing better on updating on a more frequent basis. This chapter was originally called Persuasion and Confusion. However, I had to cut out the last part and start it at the beginning of the next chapter, otherwise I felt this one would be too long. As I got towards the end of this chapter I hit a bit of writing block. To keep myself going I did a whole bunch of plotting, and I think that helped. I got the whole top seven of the school's girls' tennis team created and worked out. I can't wait to work with their characters, although they play minor parts.**

**While I was looking for the phobia name for the fear of thunder I came across some phobias I thought were really weird or funny. I wish I could put all of them, but these are my favorite ones. 1) ****Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. 2) Consecotaleophobia- Fear of chopsticks. 3) Teutophobia- Fear of German or German things. 4) Symmetrophobia- Fear of symmetry. 5)** **Phobophobia- Fear of phobias. 6) Peladophobia- Fear of bald people. 7) ****Kathisophobia- Fear of sitting down. So these are just a couple. I got them from phobialist . com. I would suggest taking a look at the site. It can provide a lot of entertainment. There are some really weird phobias out there. **

**Please feel free to review. Thank you Daydreamer9 for taking the time to review each chapter. It makes me feel happy and it's fun to wait and see what you think. It keeps me going :)**

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"_Alright so I know who the girl is, although I'm not sure of her name. Apparently she's Suzushima-san's cousin, and she's been living with him and his parents since she was four. There were complications with her parents, so she hasn't had any contact with them since. The little bit more I know is that she's ill and is in the hospital a lot. From what I can figure these outings where we see him is when she's feeling well enough to go out. Suzushima-san's parents are pilots, and get good pay. However, this girl needs some kind of operation if she wants to get better for good. It's really expensive though. I think Suzushima-san is in the competition for the prize money so he can help pay for it."_

"_Well doesn't that just make him an angel?" Jacques said as he folded his arm. Brooke could tell his tone was a lot less harsher. _

"_Is this all accurate?" Brooke asked. Aya nodded and Brooke continued, "Where'd you find this all out. Was it your mom who knew?"_

"_I was asked by the person who told me not to tell anything other than what I've told you."_

"_So you know more then?"_

"_No, I just meant they didn't want the information to be spread everywhere else. It would be bad for Suzushima-san if it got out."_

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"Yes. We're finally done for the day!" Brooke exclaimed happily. Classes had ended for the day and Brooke was itching to get out. It had been raining for the past two days, and the weather was expected to continue to get colder. For this afternoon the rain was taking a break, although there were rumors that it was coming to come back later on. Brooke didn't care. As long as she got a few hours of sun she would be happy. She turned to her best friend.

"Hey, Aya-chan, let's go and practice today. I want to work on this new move Jacques-kun told me about. He says I need more variety in my attacks. What do you think?" she asked her. Aya rested her cheeks on her palms. She looked at Brooke and then looked straight. Brooke assumed that she was thinking of an answer to give her. She had noticed it herself. She really didn't know that much about martial arts, so her fighting moves were limited to the basics. Mostly she just went with whatever she thought might work, but it couldn't help to have more experience with it.

"Actually I want to go shopping. I need some new shirts and shoes. I want to get some food too." Aya finally responded after a bit of silence. More silence followed at she finished her sentence.

"Hah?" Brooke forced out. She was completely confused. Aya always wanted to go practice, and usually it was Brooke who had to convince her it was time to leave. Now she was shooting down the idea. It was absolutely baffling. Brooke had never been in a situation like this before and wasn't sure what to do.

"Well to be quite honest I want to take a few days off from practicing. I mean we go almost every single day. I think it'd be nice to something different for a change. You can only do so much of one thing for so long. It's good to have a variety." Aya responded, turning back to Brooke. Brooke rested her arm on her desk.

"I get what you're saying, but this is somewhat sudden. You've never minded going before, and you're usually the one asking me to come along with you. What's with the change of mind?" Brooke questioned her. Aya seemed a bit lethargic today.

"Brooke-chan?" Aya started.

"Hmm?"

"I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I-" she stopped.

"No it's alright. Go on." Brooke encouraged her. She didn't like where this was going, but wanted to hear what Aya was going to say. Her mind was blank on what could come out of her mouth.

"Actually a lot of the times I only act so excited and go to practice is because I know you really want to." Aya ended in a sheepish manner. Brooke didn't expect that. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be insulted, hurt, understanding, or what. She definitely was still confused.

"So…you don't like coming with me or something? Are you saying you're just forcing yourself to come with me?" Brooke asked. She tried to keep her voice calm, because she was unsure of where this whole thing was going. She really didn't like where she thought it could head.

"No, no, no!" Aya quickly responded, "I meant that I'm trying to support you here, and I just don't know how to phrase it. I love going to practice with you, and I'm not forcing myself at all. When you have to make me leave and such, those are all genuine moments. However, one person can take so much Angelic Layer."

"Yeah, I guess." Brooke said slowly. She was still incredibly unsure of how to respond to the whole situation. Aya was hesitating a bit, and Brooke knew it was because she was trying to make sure she wasn't hurting Brooke's feelings. Brooke's feeling weren't hurt, and she hoped Aya could see that.

"Brooke-chan, can I ask you a question?" Aya asked. Brooke nodded. Aya took a second or so to think it over before she asked her question.

"How come you're not doing a lot of the old things you used to do? Like all the tennis stuff? You used to play a lot when you first came here. Now all you do is play Angelic Layer. It just worries me a bit that you might be getting too caught up with it, and forgetting about the old things you used to love."

"That's not true." Brooke retorted instantly. Defiance has quickly sprung up into her heart. She wasn't just playing Angelic Layer. She was still doing other things.

"Are you sure?" Aya continued hesitantly, "When's the last time you went to play tennis? I hear Aimee-chan talking to your mom when I was over at your house last that you hadn't gone in some time."

"I went-" Brooke had to stop. Hadn't she just gone to play last week? Oh, wait it was the week before. No. She had gone with Aimee to practice that day. Did that mean it had been the week prior to that? So….three weeks? Shoot. It had been four weeks because she, Aya, and Jacques had gone out for pizza before going to practice. Four weeks equaled a month didn't it? Had it really been that long since she had picked up her racket? It couldn't have been, could it?

"See?" Aya added. Brooke swallowed hard.

"O-okay, so I haven't gone to play in awhile. That doesn't mean I have forgotten about it or anything. I'm just trying to keep getting better so I can beat Suzushima-san. If I don't he won't let me live it down." Brooke tried to reason her way out.

"Is that complete honesty? I can understand why you want to work so hard, but do you mean you're going to let some stupid boy get in the way of doing something that could take you really far, and something I know you really really love?"

"Angelic Layer could take me really really far." Brooke pointed out, however she was starting to feel a little bit trapped.

"Yes it can, but is that what you want? Brooke-chan you haven't been playing Angelic Layer that long, and the only reason you joined the Kanto games is because of a bet. What happens when you get to that point where you beat Suzushima-san? What then? Where are you going to work towards afterwards? You joined to beat him, not to win. I feel that you are getting too caught up in the momentary dream."

"I want to win." Brooke said. However, even she could tell that she didn't say it with any conviction at all. There was no confidence there that said her statement was true. All she cared about was proving Renjiro wrong. Brooke hadn't even envisioned what would come after that. She couldn't just drop out of the competition, and she couldn't lose a match on purpose. Being the national champion hadn't been her goal. It would be nice, but she wasn't going to be terribly upset if she wasn't.

"I believe that you can go all the way in the national games. However, I believe even stronger that you can go farther in tennis. In fact I really want to see you go there. There's no doubt that you have a ton of natural talent, and in almost everything you do. I can easily picture you at the U.S. Open and Windleton."

"It's Wimbledon." another voice joined in. It was Jacques moving from his seat towards them. He sat down in the seat behind Brooke. By this time most of the class had left, although a few people were still lingering.

"Good job Aya-chan. You're encouraging her to go for the most prestigious tennis competition in the world, and you can't even pronounce it right." he said with a small smile, but it was apparent he had been listening to the conversation from across the room.

"Oh be quiet. Before Brooke-chan came I really didn't like tennis. Now it's fun to watch. I'm sorry if I mispronounce one word." Aya crossed her arms.

"Alright, alright," Jacques put up his hands in defeat, "I just wanted to point it out is all."

"I never thought of going pro before. I've always played tennis because I love it and it's fun." Brooke joined back in. The topic had quickly switched from her playing Angelic Layer to her future in tennis. She was having a hard time keeping straight what she should do. She knew though that she _had_ thought about trying to go pro a few times, but never knew the right way to go about it. Then all the drama with the move had come along, and since she had moved to Japan she had been focused on Angelic Layer.

"I strongly think it's something you should consider. If you do want to shoot for it, now is the right time to prepare. If you wait too long the chance might slip by you before you realize that it has gone." Aya told her.

"Yeah, you'll be all old and gross. Instead of hitting the balls with a racket you'll have to hit them with a cane. Of course, you'd probably fall over and break a hip." Jacques shrugged. That infamous smile of his that appeared when he was teasing someone quickly made its way onto his face. Brooke turned her head to face him.

"Tais-tois." Brooke said simply to him. Jacques smiled faded for a second in a moment of confusion, and then a different type of smile came onto his face. _(Shut up.)_

"Ooh ho ho." he laughed, "Donc petite Mademoiselle Brooke pense qu'elle peut parler français? _(So little Miss Brooke thinks she can speak French?)_

"Je peux comprendre qu'il et le parle un peu, mais vous ne pouvez pas parler probablement la boîte anglaise vous? Cela signifie que je suis meilleur." Brooke said slower, but to the best of her ability. In addition to having a Japanese father, she also had French grandparents, so she was able to pick up a bit of the language. _(I can understand it and speak it a little, but you probably can't speak English can you? That means I'm better.)_

"Je sais quelque anglais." Jacques told her defiantly. Brooke was taken aback for a moment. He had never mentioned having any experience learning English. She wondered how much he did know. _(I know some English.)_

"W-wait a moment you two. I can't understand a single thing you're saying." Aya said feebly, trying to get their attention. However Brooke and Jacques had quickly been transported off into their own world.

"Dire quelque chose alors." Brooke challenged. With it being Jacques, she wasn't sure what was going to come out of his mouth. Brooke watched him think about his words. He opened his mouth a few times as if he was about to say something, and then closed it again. After a minute of silence passed Brooke was starting to wonder if he knew it as well as he said. _(Say something then.)_

"**Anytime~**" Brooke spoke in English, and in a sing-song voice.

"Un moment, s'il vous plaît!" Jacques said. _(One moment, please!)_

"Brooke-chan what in the world is going on? I can't tell what's happening at all. What are you guys talking about?" Aya asked. It took a second for Brooke to realize Aya was speaking to her. She was so focused on waiting for Jacques.

"Sorry Aya-chan. I was pointing out that I could speak some French, and then Jacques-kun said he could speak some English. I asked him to say something, but apparently he's having a hard time doing it." Brooke shrugged. She turned back to Jacques.

"**I have it.**" he spoke slowly.

"**Ah, he speaks!**" Brooke smiled, "I'll translate for you Aya-chan, and I'll put all the mistakes in there."

"**I can talk pretty English. Better than you can't speak French you silly turkey.**" Jacques said a bit faster. The urge to laugh was immense, but Brooke was somehow able to keep a straight face. She wanted to hear what else he was going to say. It was interesting to be called a "silly turkey", and she assumed he had meant "silly goose."

"I can talk pretty English. Better than you can't speak French you silly turkey." Brooke whispered to Aya. Her mouth instantly curled into a smile, but Brooke gave her a look that said keep quiet. Brooke saw Jacques was staring at them.

"**Please, do continue.**" she told him.

"**What you tell Aya? She was smiled at me. Is my English that ugly? I think it very pretty.**" Jacques asked, his eyebrow was raised.

"**It is very pretty. Aya was just amazed how well you can speak English.**" Brooke lied. This was a priceless moment. She wished that she had a video camera right there and then.

"Brooke-chan I heard my name. What did he say?" Aya asked her in a whisper.

"What you tell Aya? She was smiled at me. Is my English ugly? I think it very pretty." Brooke whispered back. Aya nodded, and kept a straight face this time. Brooke knew she was hoping not to give anything away.

"**What she think?**"

"**She's thinks you're a hot platypus.**" Brooke lied again, but it was impossible for her to keep a straight face now.

"**Oh that good.**" Jacques responded, not showing any signs of understanding what she had said. She really had to bite her lip now. Brooke leaned over towards Aya again.

"He asked me 'What she think?' and I told him you thought he was a hot platypus, and he said 'Oh that good.' He has no idea!" Brooke whispered, but her voice was shaking as she tried to keep her laughter back. However, when Aya heard what Brooke told her she couldn't contain herself anymore. Once Brooke heard Aya laughing so hard like that she had to let it out as well. She brought her hand over her mouth in a desperate attempt to stop.

"**Oh no Jacques, it's not you! We're just um laughing at, er…**" was all she was able to manage between gasps of air. Brooke took a look at his expression, and to her surprise his joking smile was back on his face. What did that mean?

"**I'll let you know that I was just messing around with you. I was purposely making my English sound horrible. See, I can speak it well enough.**" Jacques said. It still had a French accent, but he spoke it much more fluently than Brooke would've ever imagined. He said he knew some, but he was speaking almost perfectly. Brooke instantly stopped laughing. Now the joke was on her, and she wasn't sure whether to keep laughing or feel stupid. At the moment she did both.

"Brooke-chan?" Aya questioned.

"I do not think I look like a hot platypus at all Aya-chan. Hot- yes, platypus- no." Jacques told Aya. She stopped laughing as well and sat there with a confused look on her face. She turned her head to Brooke for an explanation.

"He was fooling around with us! He can speak English a lot better than he was letting on. Thanks a lot Jacques-kun, now don't we feel stupid?" Brooke said.

"That was the plan!" Jacques smiled widely.

"You can so be so completely unbelievable sometimes." Aya added. Jacques just nodded.

"Oh wow…" Brooke continued after she stopped her laughing. The last few other people in their class had been giving them strange looks, but the three of them hadn't noticed. "Aya-chan if you want to go shopping I think I'm in the mood for it now. Jacques-kun do you want to come and pick out shoes with us?"

"I'll pass thanks. Plus I said I would look after my little brother today so my parents could go out."

"Okay then. Aya-chan it's just us. Where do you want to go?"

"There's another new shop that opened near here. I would like to go, and wait, weren't we….oh right! Brooke-chan, I hadn't really said everything that I wanted to yet about the tennis and all." Aya remembered.

"Aaaand we're back to that." Brooke mumbled. Aya had brought up some good points, but Brooke didn't feel like discussing it at this point in time.

"This isn't from me this time. Actually the girls' tennis team captain came to me this morning and asked if I would send a message to you. They want you to join with them. Apparently she saw you practicing one time sometime ago, and thought you could really help the team go far this year."

"Why didn't she come and ask me herself?"

"She said she wasn't sure how to ask you. She's a good captain and tennis player, but she can be shy when it comes to everything else. It's Megumi-chan from class D."

"Oh yeah I know her. But isn't it a little late now don't you think? If she saw me practicing some time ago it would've been better to ask me right away. I don't think I would have time right now."

"You're really going to turn down the offer without even thinking about it? You were on the team back at your old school weren't you?"

"I was. However, I didn't have anything else to focus on besides schoolwork. What would I do if a tournament and one of my match's fell on the same day? Would you be able to choose Aya-chan?" Brooke asked, really trying to emphasize her point. Aya was silent.

"No, I don't know what I would do, but…..I strongly think you should consider it. Megumi-chan told me that most competitions don't fall on the same days as the matches. Then on the one or two days that they fall on the same day, they can have the reserve player take your spot. Also, the tennis team only practices two hours for four days, so you would still have plenty of time to practice. Brooke-chan this is an extremely good compromise, and it will get you back into playing tennis. It would be real shame to turn it down." she spoke after the silence.

"I- I just don't think that…" Brooke fumbled over her words. These past couple minutes were hurting her brain to the point where she was having trouble making sense of anything. She actually lost some of what Aya had said because her brain forgot how to translate the Japanese for a brief second. It didn't help either that she had just confused her brain with two other languages.

"Alright Brooke-chan, that's it!" Aya said loudly, standing up.

"What?" Brooke questioned.

"I challenge you!" Aya spoke even louder, pointing a finger at Brooke. Luckily by this time all others had cleared out of the room. The only people left were Brooke, Aya, and Jacques.

"Challenge me to what?" Brooke couldn't figure out what she was trying to accomplish.

"A tennis match!" Aya folded her arms and looked down at Brooke with glaring confidence.

"Hah?!" Brooke repeated her previous statement.

"Oh don't give me that! We're going to play a match and if I win you're going to join the tennis club. If you win I won't say another word about it."

"Um, but Aya-chan you've never even picked up a racket before…" Brooke told her quietly. Her friend's outburst had rendered her quite speechless.

"Ooh ooh! I want to try it too!" Jacques piped up.

"I thought you had to go watch your brother?" Aya said with confusion.

"Oh, well, that's not till later. I just didn't want to go shoe-shopping."

"Oh thanks." Aya said.

"My pleasure." Jacques gave a slight bow.

"Wait you two! I'm not sure about this!" Brooke worried.

"Now Brooke-chan, I understand you might be worried about me, because I play a wicked tennis. Don't worry about this girl over here though. She's the most uncoordinated person I have ever seen."

"Hey don't be mean. I have some athletic talent." Aya argued.

"You do?" Brooke asked her. She was not joking at all, but was seriously wondering if Aya thought she did have athletic talent. She had the lowest gym score in the class, and even had trouble riding a bike. If Brooke had been smarter though she would've kept her mouth shut.

"Yes! I will prove it to you right now!" Aya said loudly, "You have two rackets right?"

"U-um yes. They're both at my house." Brooke muttered feebly.

"We're leaving then!" Aya continued, grabbing Brooke's hand and pulling her up. Brooke wished she had kept her mouth shut. She had just evoked a great wrath. Jacques followed them out of the classroom with an expression showing he was trying not to laugh.

—**¤÷(`[¤* *¤]´)÷¤——¤÷(`[¤* *¤]´)÷¤——¤÷(`[¤* *¤]´)÷¤——¤÷(`[¤* *¤]´)÷¤—**

"Aya-chan you need to stand to the right of the hash!" Brooke yelled across the court. She was about to start a one-set match with Aya. The three of them had gone back to Brooke's house to grab the rackets and balls. She and Aya had also changed into shorts and t-shirts from Brooke's collection. There had been nothing for Jacques to change into to, but he said he would be fine as long as he took off his jacket.

It had been a strange feeling, coming down to the courts. It felt like she was so familiar with the place, yet it felt like forever since she had come. The biggest surprise had come when she picked up her racket. It felt a lot heavier than she remembered. Before they were about to start Brooke stood off to the side and practiced her swings. In the beginning each felt awkward. That was when she really started to feel guilty about not playing for such a long time.

"Oh right." Aya answered. She shifted to her right. Brooke had decided to let her serve first. She might not have played in a month, but she knew that Aya wasn't going to be able to beat her. This was easy to see as Aya tried to bounce the ball with her left hand, missed, and accidentally bounced it against her foot. The ball went rolling across the other side of the court. Jacques ran up to her and placed another one in her hand before sprinting to go get it. Aya blushed a little and directly went to tossing the ball up into the air. It went too far behind her, but Aya swung at it anyway.

To Brooke's surprise the racket made contact, but the ball went to Aya's right. It stopped right in Jacques's path. He picked it up and gave it to Aya again. Brooke knew why he handed it to her, because there was a slim possibility she would catch it.

"Fault." Brooke said. Aya tried again, but this time the ball went to the left.

"Fault. Love-Fifteen." Brooke said. She started to walk towards the other side of the court as Aya went after the ball. The first game continued with Aya losing by faulting the whole time. Brooke then went onto win the next game by all service aces. It was during the third game that Aya served the ball over the net, and into the right box. Brooke was shocked by this and scrambled to the ball. As a result she hit it straight into the net.

"Yes! Yes! Take that! Who says I don't have any athletic ability now?!" Aya cheered, looking as confident as if she had just beaten a Grand Slam champion. Brooke stood up straight and sighed. She definitely had to be on her guard now.

"Fifteen-Thirty. But don't think that'll happen again Aya-chan. You just got lucky." Brooke taunted.

"Let's just see about that!" Aya boasted confidently. She then proceeded to lose the game by faulting the last two points.

"Three games-love, to Brooke-chan." Jacques called out. Brooke could see Aya was getting more and more frustrated. Brooke admired her drive. She was trying her best and it didn't look like she was willing to give up.

The fourth game started, and Brooke got the first two points again by service aces. It became apparent that Aya was getting closer and closer to hitting the ball. It couldn't be too much longer before she finally hit it. Brooke's theory turned out to be true on her next serve. It was a very soft and slow ball, but Aya hit it and it went right over the net. Brooke ran to it and lobbed it high up in the air. Aya watched it and ran around looking for where it would drop. She was very close, but it dropped right behind her and bounced out of the court.

"Thirty-Love." Jacques said. Brooke watched as Aya's face went from confusion to looking slightly irritated.

"Darn it." she spoke angrily. Then what happened next really got Brooke angry. Aya took her racket and threw it on the ground. _No one_ treated her rackets like that!

"AYA-CHAN!" Brooke yelled incredibly loud. Aya jumped a mile high in the air, and even the innocent Jacques started to look a bit guilty, "You do that again and something bad is going to happen!"

"Y-yes, I'm sorry." Aya apologized quietly, and took the racket gently off the ground. Brooke knew she was being a bit touchy, but the rackets had been expensive. Plus they had been with Brooke for a long time, and they had a lot of sentimental value. Something had just snapped when she saw it being so badly treated like that. It was hard to watch her best friend do what she did to something Brooke cared for deeply.

Jacques tossed the ball back to her, and Brooke got herself ready. When she threw it up in the air she threw it much higher than before. Brooke felt a satisfying feeling when the ball connected so strongly with the face of the racket. It had been too long since she had played like this. She had forgotten the power and confidence she felt when playing, along with how much it refreshed her. Also it was so fun. Her upset face was replaced with a smiling one when the ball slammed onto Aya's side of the court and shot past her before Aya could realize what had happened. The same thing happened with the next ball.

"I forgive you now Aya-chan." Brooke told her as her friend tried bouncing the ball before she tossed it. Aya flashed her a smile and let the ball fly into the air. It was another good hit, but the difference in skill was too much. Brooke went on to quickly beat Aya in the fifth game, and finished her off in the sixth match. Aya had only scored a single point, but both girls were smiling by the end.

"Don't think I'll be so easy to beat." Jacques taunted as Aya gave him the racket. Brooke responded by rolling her eyes and walking up to the net. Jacques had already surprised her today with the English, so she assumed he was better at tennis than he had previously let on.

"Which?" Brooked asked, holding the end of her racket.

"Smooth." Jacques responded. Brooke was correct. Jacques definitely knew what he was doing. Brooke spun the racket. It eventually slowed and fell over on its side with the "M" facing upside down.

"It's rough. My serve." Brooke said happily, picking up her racket and resting it on top of her shoulder.

"Tch. Bad luck." Jacques sighed with a smile as he walked to his spot. Brooke went to the base line and prepared herself. He was going to be better than Aya, but there was no way he was better than her. As she bounced the ball against the ground her head subconsciously turned towards the left. She saw against the horizon a patch of small, dark clouds. Oh well. They were far off in the distance and there weren't that many of them. If it did start to rain while they were out there, it would only be very light.

"Here we go!" Brooke said loudly as she tossed the ball into the air. The ball went zooming onto Jacques's side of the court. He hit it strong and hard, and right into the net.

"Ah, a bit rusty." he mumbled as he rubbed the back of his head and went to his position. Yes, Brooke was going to have to watch him carefully.

She served again, and this time he hit it back fine. The ball was a bit heavier than she expected, but it wasn't anything special. After two more rallies Jacques missed the ball for Brooke's second point. No offence to Aya, but this was much better for Brooke. Her blood was pumping more, and Brooke was enjoying this greater challenge. Brooke took the first game easily. However, it seemed with each ball Jacques was hitting a bit better. Nowhere near her level of course, but he was improving.

The next game took her over ten minutes to win, which was a four minute gain from the last one. It wasn't so much that Jacques was continuing to get that good, eventually he had hit his best point and stayed there. It was the clouds continuing to tumble closer and closer towards them. Apparently during the last game the storm chose to grow and move faster. Brooke wasn't the only one paying attention to it. Both Jacques and Aya were throwing glances over at the clouds as well.

At this point it still really didn't bother her- as long as it didn't start thundering. She still felt silly that she hadn't gotten over that fear yet. Tonitrophobia or whatever it was. It was one of the few things that did make her feel nervous and scared. Lightning, snakes, hairy spiders, bugs, blood, knives, and all manner of other fears didn't really affect her. Brooke took one last look at the swarm of growingly dark clouds before regaining her concentration on the match.

It was her turn to serve again, and the part where Jacques would realize there was no hope left for him. Brooke twisted the racket in her hand while bouncing the ball with her right. Alright. This one would be a service ace for sure! She tossed it just slightly higher than normal, and when she hit it she hit it with even more power than she thought she was going to. The speed of the ball surprised Brooke more than it surprised Jacques. It turned out to be a service ace as it flew right past Jacques side. He hadn't even moved. The speed had caught him off guard.

"Yeah! Fifteen-Love!" Brooke cheered, raising her racket slightly into the air. It was right then when a loud rumble rattled across the sky. Brooke took a sharp intake of air, and her grip loosened so much on her racket that it clattered on the ground as it hit the hard surface. Jacques and Aya's heads, which had turned to the sky, turned back to her. Brooke blushed and bent down to pick up her racket. While she did she took a deep breath.

What was she getting so afraid for? She knew the thunder wasn't going to hurt her. She could get over this fear right now. Look, that thunder was moderately loud and she wasn't freaking out. Okay it had startled her a bit, but she was fine now. No problem. It was totally possible for her to do this.

"The grip was just a little sweaty. Let's hurry up and finish your beating Jacques-kun so we don't get soaking wet." Brooke called over to him. He smiled.

"Sounds fine to me. However don't think you've got me beaten just yet."

"Let's just see." Brooke spoke to herself, bouncing the ball against the hard ground. She was going to try for the same thing this time. Before she raised her arm to toss the ball she took another deep breath. Brooke launched the ball up into the air and bent back even further than before. The serve was even faster than the previous one had been. Jacques had tried swinging at it, but swung way too late and missed it by a mile.

"Thirty-Love."

"See? You could totally go pro if you wanted to. Or at least you could join the team." Aya spoke as Brooke took a second to wipe a bit of sweat off her forehead.

"Possibly. However Aya-chan you bet me that if you won I would join the team. You quite clearly lost." Brooke pointed out.

"What do you think this match is for? Same bet goes as well." Jacques added.

"I assumed so, but you're losing horribly as well." Brooke told him. He just shrugged and motioned for her to serve again. Brooke rolled her eyes and got into position. She was planning to try to do the same service ace again. At this point she was curious to see how fast she could get her serve to go. She had never served at this speed before. Maybe her little break had done her playing skills some good. Brooke held the green ball tightly before releasing it into the open air.

She brought her racket back before swinging it hard at the ball. Right before she did a mighty thunder clasp shook the whole world, or so it seemed. Brooke definitely thought so. Brooke's serve was horribly messed up. The ball slammed hard on her side of the court and bounced hard against the net. At the same time her hand muscles gave up on her again, and once more her racket clattered on the ground. Luckily the noise was covered up by another lesser thunder clasp. Unluckily the motion of her going to pick up her racket changed Jacques and Aya's gaze from skyward to Brooke.

"I think this is a cue that it is time to leave. The rain is going to come down hard and fast. I don't want to be caught it in." Aya started. Jacques nodded in agreement and began to walk off the court.

"Wait! Can't we at least finish the match. It'll take like one minute- not even." Brooke protested. She was still fine. She could still do this.

"As much as I like to see how what you think of my tennis skills, I think Aya-chan is right. Plus my parents would freak if I stayed out in a monster of a storm that this is going to turn out to be." Jacques said. Now it was Brooke's turn to shrug. She walked over towards the bench and her friends.

As she got closer she noticed that Aya was staring at her and giving her a weird look. Brooke ignored this and helped Jacques put the rackets back into her bag. She was about to sling it over her shoulder when she took a glance at Aya and saw she was still giving her the same look. Brooke's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Is there something wrong Aya-chan? Do I have something on me?" she asked. Aya bent in closer and looked at Brooke carefully.

"You look really pale for some reason." Aya stated. Jacques walked around, stood next to Aya, and looked at Brooke the same way.

"She's right. Is something the matter?"

"It's probably just the change of light or something." Brooke brushed it off. She wasn't pale. Those two were just seeing things. She went for the strap of the bag again.

"Hey your hands are shaking!" Aya spoke louder as she pointed towards Brooke's hands.

"No they're not." Brooke spoke as if her best friend was being absolutely ridiculous. Another giant thunder clasp shook the ground. Brooke's heart skipped a few beats, but she couldn't let those two see. Unfortunately they could tell something was up by now.

"Don't be silly. Look Brooke-chan your whole body is shaking now. Plus you just jumped a mile when that thunder came." Aya continued. She put her hands on her hips. It was her famous pose, just like Jacques's joking smile.

"No I am not, and no I didn't. You two are seeing things." Brooke retorted once more. She did not feel herself shaking nor had she even moved. Sure the thunder had startled her a teeny bit, but it would startle anyone.

"Brooke-chan are you afraid of thunder?" Jacques got right to the point. Brooke waited a few seconds before answering.

"No."

"You just totally hesitated!" Aya said even louder, "Whether you want to be stupid and not admit it, or whatever, it's really obvious to us. You should've told us. You look like you're about to faint."

"No I am not." Brooke repeated. She went for her bag yet again, but Jacques stopped her.

"Here. Put this on." he said as he held up his school jacket towards her. He put it right up against her. This irritated Brooke. She was fine, she had to be fine. Those two were imagining things. They didn't need to act like she was about to die or something. Brooke pushed the jacket back towards him.

"Thanks, but I don't want it." she rejected. Jacques pushed it right back.

"No, put it on." he said more forcefully.

"I don't want it." Brooke whined, almost like a child would.

"Put it on!" Jacques said much more forcefully. It was the first time he had ever spoken in such a way to her, or had sounded truly annoyed with her. It caught her so off guard that she found herself accepting the jacket and putting it on. It was big on her, but she felt warmer. Jacques picked up the bag and slung it around his shoulder instead. Brooke wanted to protest more, but decided it would be in her best interest to be quiet.

"Aya-chan you need to ride my bike back to Brooke-chan's house." Jacques instructed her.

"But your bike is a boys' bike. It's a lot bigger than what I'm used to." she complained slightly.

"I know. However, my bike doesn't have pegs that Brooke-chan can use. It'll be easier for you to ride my bike than to try and use hers and have her on the back."

"I can ride my own bike." Brooke piped up. Jacques sighed.

"Okay, obviously you can't see how in denial you are right now. Even more obvious is how bad you look to us. Seriously I don't trust your riding abilities right now. I trust Aya-chan's more. That should give you some idea of how bad of a shape you're in." he explained. Aya ignored the side-line joking insult. Brooke wanted to continued to argue, but the rain had started to sprinkle lightly and she knew by now that it was going to come on fast. She didn't want to get caught in it.

They unhooked the bikes and set off. Jacques had a bit of trouble adjusting to Brooke's smaller bike and the fact there was another person on it. Brooke held on tightly to his shoulders at first, but as he got better she loosened her grip. The person who was having the most trouble was Aya. She was barely good at riding her own bike. With Jacques's she could barely touch the ground on her tip-toes, and the different design made for awkward riding. Still, she kept her mouth shut and kept trailing on behind Jacques and Brooke.

They arrived at Brooke's house and got the bikes put away just as the hard rain came down. The house was quiet. Brooke's dad was still at work, and her mother had taken Cobey out for a bit. Aimee was visiting her friend's house so the three of them were all alone. Brooke and Aya went up to Brooke's room to change while Jacques called his parents to explain where he was. The girls finished and Brooke and Jacques sat on the couch in the living room while Aya went to call her parents. Rain was pelting hard against the windows. The sky was a kaleidoscope of dark clouds and brilliant streaks of lightning.

The thunder continued to roll out constantly. Brooke was feeling like herself now, or more like she wasn't trying to deny anything anymore. While she was changing she had taken a look at herself in the mirror. She was indeed very white and her hands were actually shaking. It was hard to swallow because she had wanted so badly to get over the fear, but no matter how fine she told herself that she was, her body argued differently. She and Jacques sat in silence. They listened to the raging storm. The thunder was still making her feel nervous, but now that they were inside Brooke felt comforted. She was grateful she had been made to leave. If they had finished the game like she had wanted they would've gotten soaked.

"Geez what a day." Aya sighed as he walked into the room and sat down next to Brooke, "Rather disappointing."

"How so?" Jacques questioned. Aya folded her legs on the couch and held a pillow to her chest.

"Nothing was accomplished. I lost the match, and Jacques-kun you would've as well. Oh you know it!" she told him as he opened his mouth to try and deny it, "I really wanted you to take up the offer Brooke-chan, but I guess the whole thing was useless."

"No it wasn't." Brooke replied truthfully. Aya and Jacques looked at her. Brooke turned her head towards the ceiling and thought strongly for a moment. Finally when she was done, she looked back at them.

"Playing with you two was fun, and it showed me how much I miss playing. Plus I felt really powerful when I got those last few serves so fast. I've never been able to do them so well. I liked it. I think, maybe, I might take up Megumi-chan's offer." Brooke smiled at Aya.

"Really?" Aya asked cheerfully. Brooke nodded.

"However, I am also kind of cold. I also think if maybe you made up some hot chocolate I will take up the offer." she continued. Aya didn't say anything, but jumped up from the couch and rushed into the kitchen. Brooke and Jacques laughed a little and started talking about their tennis match, ignoring the noise outside.


	10. Distraction

**Chapter Ten: **_**Distractions**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the concept of Angelic Layer. CLAMP owns that part. However all new characters and the plot belongs to me. **

**A/N: Yay! Here we are at chapter ten! Finally. This is the longest fanfiction I've actually managed to keep updating without letting it sink into the depths of an infinite hiatus. There's still a long long long ways to go. I really like the first part of this chapter with Brooke, Jacques, and Renjiro. I think maybe it's because Aya's not there (read below to find out why) and so for a little bit it's just Brooke and Jacques (and Renjiro) talking. At least in the parts I'm writing the two of them don't hang out together alone too often. It's a bit of a change so I think that's why I like it. Plus I get to dig deeper into Brooke's romantic feelings.**

**I'm going to point out that the bolded sentences you see in this chapter are different from chapter nine. In the last chapter the bolded words meant they were speaking in English. When Jacques reads the text message he is translating the words from English into Japanese. The words are bolded to show the difference between the English text message and his own words. Originally I had Renjiro knowing how to speak English. However, when I wrote chapter nine I decided to have Jacques know how to speak it as well. When I got here I felt that two characters knowing almost perfect English was too much. So I decided to change around the way the whole scenario worked out, and I like it better this way.**

**This chapter is kind of a filler chapter. It's much shorter and not too much happens. Mostly character introductions. It's going to help me get to where I need to be to set up the future chapters. My favorite character from the five new girls introduced would be the co-captain. If I could I would write a story all about her. Too bad she doesn't play Angelic Layer. Sora you asked me what Brooke's school uniform looked like (and if Aya was from the anime/manga. She's an original character I created). I had previously drawn the school's tennis uniform for the girl regulars, so I added a quick sketch to the right. To top it off I added an even quicker sketch below that of Brooke's old uniform at her school back in London. It was private as well so it's got to have a uniform. I like her new one much better. For the record I used a reference when I drew the Brooke on the left. Well, I wouldn't call her Brooke because she doesn't look like the Brooke in my head. I can't draw the faces very well to match what I want them to look like, so most of my drawings have no faces. They're all like mannequins. You can stick whatever expressions you want on them. To find the picture I'm talking about go to photobucket and look up my account EijiCute. You'll find a scanned picture in the album 'Random'. That's where it'll have Brooke's uniforms and more information.**

ↄ ↄ**°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ**

"_Geez what a day." Aya sighed as she walked into the room and sat down next to Brooke, "Rather disappointing."_

"_How so?" Jacques questioned. Aya folded her legs on the couch and held a pillow to her chest._

"_Nothing was accomplished. I lost the match, and Jacques-kun you would've as well. Oh you know it!" she told him as he opened his mouth to try and deny it, "I really wanted you to take up the offer Brooke-chan, but I guess the whole thing was useless."_

"_No it wasn't." Brooke replied truthfully. Aya and Jacques looked at her. Brooke turned her head towards the ceiling and thought strongly for a moment. Finally when she was done, she looked back at them._

"_Playing with you two was fun, and it showed me how much I miss playing. Plus I felt really powerful when I got those last few serves so fast. I've never been able to do them so well. I liked it. I think, maybe, I might take up Megumi-chan's offer." Brooke smiled at Aya._

"_Really?" Aya asked cheerfully. Brooke nodded._

"_However, I am also kind of cold. I also think if maybe you made up some hot chocolate I will take up the offer." she continued. Aya didn't say anything, but jumped up from the couch and rushed into the kitchen. Brooke and Jacques laughed a little and started talking about their tennis match, ignoring the noise outside._

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Brooke sat down comfortably in her seat the following Monday. It had been a rather good weekend. She had had her next match on Saturday. It had been very tough, and at one point she was very scared that she was going to lose. In fact she almost did. It was another tense moment like the match against Verde. At the last second she had pulled through. Aya, Jacques, and Renjiro also continued onto the next round, even though Renjiro had not been in school Thursday or Friday. Brooke had a bad feeling that soon she, or Jacques or Aya was going to have to face one of the others. It had to happen at some point if they all kept winning like this.

That thought was far from her mind as she stared out the window. Right now she had something else to focus on. Brooke had promised Aya she would talk to Megumi today about accepting her offer to join the tennis team. Brooke was really excited, but also nervous. She hadn't seen the team play, and wasn't sure how good they were. According to what Aya told her, they all played about as well as she did. Brooke wondered why they needed her then. If they were all that good, her joining the team would be like adding just another number.

Brooke laid her head against the desk and closed her eyes. She was tired this morning, and the seat was comfy. If school wasn't going to start soon she would've liked to have fallen asleep. Soon after she closed her eyes she felt the movement and heard the noise of Renjiro sitting down in front of her. Like normal he ignored her, and she decided it would be best not to say anything to him. She sat there quietly and listened to him getting his things out. Brooke always wondered how he was able to keep missing so many days of school. He never seemed sick, so she assumed it was something to do with his cousin.

Brooke yawned and opened her eyes. As she did the desk started to vibrate. She found this strange, and then remembered she had put her cell phone on her desk. Why? She wasn't sure. Maybe it was because she was hoping Aya would text her. She had called early that morning to let Brooke know she was sick and wouldn't need a ride to school. Brooke had texted her later on wishing she felt better. Brooke sat up and opened the phone, expecting to meet Aya's picture. The one she met, however, was the opposite of what she thought she was going to see.

It was a face she hadn't seen in a long time, or one she thought she wouldn't see again. Hesitantly Brooke opened up the message and read it. As she did a slight blush appeared on her cheeks. She read the words slowly, not wanting to believe what they were saying. Brooke had never imagined that anything like this would happen. Brooke put the open phone back on the desk, and just stared. Her mind ran blank. How in the world was she supposed to answer back? It had been many months since then. The two of them hadn't talked. What was she supposed to do?

"Hey Brooke-chan. What's up?" a pat on the back followed the question. Jacques had arrived and occupied Aya's empty seat. Brooke sat up and took a second to look at him before she turned her head back towards the phone. Jacques instantly noticed something was wrong.

"You aren't sick as well are you? Did you catch it from Aya maybe? Your face is all red." he pointed out. He shifted to put his hand on Brooke's forehead. As soon as his hand touched her skin she blushed a little harder. Brooke gently took his hand and pushed it away. She shook her head slowly and looked up at him.

"No I'm not sick, it's just…well…I don't know how to explain it…" she trailed off. Jacques looked at her curiously and sat back down. Brooke opened her mouth to try and explain the situation again, but she was interrupted by an unexpected voice.

"What's this? I can't understand a word of it. This is English isn't it?" Renjiro spoke. He had turned around and picked up Brooke's phone without either her of Jacques noticing. Her blood ran cold like ice. He was holding it by the top with only his thumb and forefinger. Any other time Brooke would've been worried he would drop it. Now she was worried about the fact he was trying to read it. She had never been happier he couldn't read English.

"Don't touch that! It's not yours!" Jacques scolded him loudly and snatched the phone out of his hand. Renjiro didn't say anything but gave a little "humpf." Brooke felt better. Yet now Jacques had the phone and he was able to read English decently enough. He would at least be able to generally understand what it meant.

"This isn't from Aya? Let's see, it says: **"From Brandon. Hey, long time no speak"** oh wait **"talk. Guess what? My—"** that word's dad right? **"My dad is being sent on a business trip, and it's around your area. I know we haven't speaken"** oh no, that's spoken I think **"in some time, but I'd like to get together and hang out. We leave in a week, and are staying for two. Hopefully see you then."** That's basically what it says right Brooke-chan?" Jacques asked her, looking up from the message. Brooke was horrified.

"Why'd you read it out loud?!" Brooke asked him in a dismayed whisper. Jacques looked at her in a confused way again. Then he realized Renjiro had been listening to the whole thing.

"Ah sorry." Jacques apologized softly.

"So who's Brandon?" Renjiro asked Brooke in a teasing manner. Brooke closed her eyes again. She was horribly embarrassed.

"He's only a friend from England. Nothing more." Brooke answered as she took her phone back from Jacques. She got out of the text and closed the phone. She made sure she buried it deep into her bag. No one else but her was going to touch it from now on.

"Just a friend? Ha! He's just as much a friend as I'm a green elephant with four trunks." Renjiro continued on. No matter how horrible Renjiro acted, Brooke had learnt you were never able to get anything past him. It didn't help that she couldn't stop her heart from pounding and her face from holding onto that slight blush. Why did Brandon want to see her anyway? She had basically told him she never wanted to speak or look at him again. They hadn't either, until now.

"Isn't he the one you mention to Aya-chan from time to time? Come to think about it you never talk to me about him." Jacques piped in.

"Jacques- kun just don't say anything please." Brooke pleaded with him. Brooke had a feeling whatever he would say would give Renjiro the wrong impression.

"That's because it's obvious he's her boyfriend Frenchie. That's a girl thing. She's not going to talk to you about him." Yup. He definitely had the wrong impression, although Brooke assumed he was just trying to mess with her.

"Eh? You have a boyfriend Brooke-chan? I get that it's a girl thing, but you could've told me." Jacques said indignantly.

"No! He's not my boyfriend! Not at all! I haven't even spoken to him since I moved here." she protested to Jacques, but also turned towards Renjiro to show she was telling him this too. Renjiro shrugged and rested his arm on the back of his chair.

"Yeah yeah. Even _if_ he isn't your boyfriend it's still pretty obvious that you like him. Otherwise you wouldn't be getting so flustered now would you? If you don't want anyone to figure it out stop acting like you are. I can read you like a book."

"So you do like someone Brooke-chan. If you like him and you haven't spoken to him since you moved this is the perfect opportunity. While he's here you should tell him."

"Jacques-kun please." Brooke whispered feebly. She had no idea what to say anymore. If she did admit that she still liked Brandon, Renjiro wouldn't let her hear the end of it. Even if she stayed quiet like now it was easy to see that would happen anyway. She found it easier to stay quiet.

"For once the idiot is speaking some sense. If this brat's going to come all the way out here with his father on a business trip he must really want to see you."

"Right, and when you tell him how you feel even if things go wrong it's alright. He'd be going back to London anyway so you wouldn't have to worry." Jacques added.

"Why are you still talking? I told you to stop speaking, didn't I?!" Brooke told him in desperation. Jacques finally seemed to have gotten the message and closed his mouth. He recognized what he had been doing and looked guilty. She waited for Renjiro to continue on. To her great relief the teacher walked in and quieted those who were still speaking. Jacques walked over to his seat quietly. Renjiro turned around, but he had a small smirk on his face and was chuckling to himself.

ↄ ↄ**°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ ↄ ↄ°•°ↄ ↄ**

"Ahahaha! So he still didn't shut up after that?" Aya's voice laughed through the phone. The long school day had finally ended and Brooke was leaning against the side of the building. She had finally gotten a message from Aya that had said she was already feeling much better. Brooke was waiting for Megumi to show up so had called her friend to tell her about the mortifying two minutes before class.

"I don't think it's funny. He made the whole thing worse! Now because of Suzushima-san I have no clue what to do either." Brooke sighed dejectedly.

"What do you mean? What do you have to do?" Aya asked.

"Well you know I still like him. I thought I'd be over him by now with him being so far away, and because I was basically rejected. I can't help still feeling something for him. Should I tell him how I feel so he can reject me properly and then I can get on with my life? Oh but what if he accepts my how I feel? Then I'm going to have to deal with a long distance relationship, and I'm already taking on another big thing here! Then there's the option of not telling him at all and leaving everything like it is! I don't know what I should do!" Brooke whined in distress. She slumped her shoulders forward and looked at the ground. There was silence on the other end.

"First off we should wait until he actually gets here. Spend a bit of time thinking about it before you jump to a rapid conclusion of what you should do. Ignore Suzushima-san and Jacques-kun. Think about what would be best for you." Aya eventually told her. It was out-of-the-textbook advice, but for that moment, it helped Brooke calm down.

"You're right. Thanks. I'll talk to you later, and feel better." Brooke finished.

"Yup." Aya said before there was a click noise and Brooke snapped her phone shut.

"Umh, excuse me?" a voice called from next to her. Quite close next to her too. Brooke let out a cry of surprise and jumped a little away form the noise. When she looked over she realized it was Megumi. The light brown haired girl looked just as surprised as Brooke did.

"I-I'm sorry, but you're Brooke-chan right?" she spoke a bit hesitantly.

"Ah yeah. Sorry about that. You just startled me when you appeared so suddenly, but moving on past that. I have something more important to talk to you about."

"About you joining the team." Megumi added on.

"Right."

"You've come to your decision?"

"Yes. I gave it a lot of thought. My friends even tried to convince me by winning a game against me, but—" she took a second to pause to watch the disappointment spread across Megumi's face. Brooke smiled.

"But they failed miserably. Still it got me thinking even more. I haven't been playing tennis recently and I've missed it. It'll cut into my Angelic Layer time, but I figure that'll be alright. I like playing tennis more, and if you'll let me I'd love to be on the team."

"Of course of course! I'm so glad Brooke-chan! This is great! Hey, practice will be starting soon and the other regular members will be there already. You probably haven't met all of them already. Come on!" Megumi said all in one breath. She grabbed Brooke's hand and started pulling her along to the school's tennis court.

"Wa-wait a moment!" Brooke called out behind her. Megumi continued to pull her along.

"Don't worry. You won't have to come to practice this week. Just spend a couple minutes getting to know the others. Then you can leave. Of course I expect to see you at the rest of this week's practices. Regulars come early. We'll have to get you our uniform too."

"R-right?" Brooke agreed. Aya had told her Megumi was quiet and timid. She had been at the beginning, but as soon as they had gotten onto tennis Brooke hadn't seen any of it. Could a person's personality differ that much? She then proceeded to let Megumi pull her along to the tennis courts. She wasn't sure who was on the team that she knew. Brooke had other friends besides Aya and Jacques, but none of them were on the team.

As they got closer, Brooke saw five girls in the same practice uniform on the court while other girls were starting to head into a small building nearby. Brooke assumed it was the team's locker room. Brooke stared as closely as she could at the ones on the court. She thought she recognized a few of them. Megumi let go of her hand now, and Brooke followed her silently onto the court. The five girls had stopped warming up and stood in a line. That made Brooke's nerves jump. Once she was inside the court she stood next to Megumi. Brooke glanced from each girl nervously. She knew three of the girls' faces, but not names. The girl on her far right gave her a wink. Wait, she was in Brooke's class wasn't she? Megumi clapped her hands.

"Okay girls. This is who I was telling you about, Brooke Miyoko-chan. She'll be joining our regular team. You might already know each other, but I figured official introductions would be good. Brooke-chan we'll start with you." she gave her a smile and turned her head towards her. Brooke gulped and took a small breath.

"Um, I'm Brooke, obviously. Ah, I was born in London, and moved here a bit before the school year. I've been playing tennis since I was four, and was captain back at my old private school. I hope we all get along well." Brooke said to the best of her abilities. Her voice got more confident as she went along, but she hadn't been sure what to say. She turned to Megumi for a sign of encouragement. Megumi nodded and faced the others.

"Thanks Brooke-chan. Let's start from your left." she told them. The girl who had winked at Brooke was up first. She had her brown hair tied in a ponytail, but wisps of hair were already starting to fall out. When her light green eyes met Brooke's she smiled.

"My name's Yukie Takaoka. Third year. Co-captain of this fine team, and have been since last year. I've been playing since I was six, and I've been to see the Australian Open." Yukie spoke cheerfully. Brooke recognized her now. She was the girl who sat in front of Jacques. Brooke wondered how she hadn't seen it sooner. Yukie looked to the girl next to her. She had toffee color hair and brown eyes.

"Name's Aoi Yuhara. Third year. Like the rest of the regulars here I've been on the regular team since my first year. I've also been playing since I was six, but unlike Yukie-chan I haven't been able to personally see any of the Grand Slam. She likes to brag about it, and the fact that she's the only left handed player on the regulars. Says left handed players are better." Aoi folded her arms and looked at Yukie. Yukie stuck her tongue out at her.

"I'm left handed." Brooke mentioned. Yukie looked at her.

"You kidding?" she asked like she couldn't believe it.

"No." Brooke, glancing around like she had done something wrong. She had never thought about left handers being better. She didn't think it was true.

"Well, have you been to any of the Grand Slam?" Yukie asked in the same tone.

"I've been to Wimbledon twice. I saw it the first time when I was four, and it's what got me to start playing." Brooke explained.

"Gah!" Yukie exclaimed, yet Brooke had a feeling she just liked making a scene. She had a feeling that Yukie didn't mind either way.

"Okay okay! It's not a competition. Next please." Megumi clapped her hands once more. The attention shifted to the girl in the middle with raven black hair tied in pigtails. She was the tallest, but her gray eyes kept avoiding Brooke's gaze.

"Um, I'm Hanae Ina. Third year. I've been playing since I was nine. I play doubles with Aoi-chan." she mumbled quietly.

"Oh come on Hana-chan! Don't be so nervous!" Aoi patted her on the back. Hanae looked at the ground.

"Kagami Kajiwara." the next girl started suddenly. Her grayish-brown hair covered her face slightly when the wind blew, but Brooke could still see her dark brown eyes staring straight at her. Brooke would've liked to hear more from Hanae.

"Second year. I play doubles with Ayaka-san. I started playing when I was five, but stopped when I was ten. I picked it back up at twelve. I'm going to be captain next year." she finished with a finality that it took even Megumi a second to find something to say.

"As I must tell you again Kagami-chan, that's still my decision to make. If you keep playing like you have been, it's possible, but let's get through this year first 'kay?" Megumi clasped her hands. She met silence and an unnerving stare. "A-alright. Last, Ayaka-chan?"

"My name is Ayaka Ezakiya, and I'm a second year. I'm also Kagami-san's doubles partner as she mentioned. I've been playing tennis since I was seven. And— " the last girl with long, light brown hair and deep green eyes started, "I don't get why you're here."

"Excuse me?" Brooke asked.

"I'm sorry. I just don't see how it's fair that you've made the regular team without trying out. We all had to try out."

"Ayaka-chan, Yukie-chan and I have the ability to draft members when we see it necessary. Yukie-chan spotted her at the beginning of the year, and we've been discussing it since." Megumi explained with an exhausted look on her face. It seems this topic had been brought up many times. "Brooke-chan is just as good as any of us and we need her. That's why she's here."

"If you say so. However, she had not proven her worth to me yet. Until she does I'm not going to fully accept her." Ayaka folded her arms.

"Ayaka-chan…" Yukie started.

"It's alright. She's right, and I agree with her." Brooke said before tensions really began to rise.

"In some weird way I see Ayaka-chan's point. So Brooke-chan let's play so we can get this whole thing out of the way. We'll prove you're supposed to be here!" Aoi cheered. Brooke instantly felt bad.

"I would, but I can't." Brooke said apologetically. A curl appeared on the corner of Ayaka's mouth.

"I already have something else to do. I didn't even know Megumi-chan was going to bring me here. I don't even have my rackets or anything."

"You guys can play all you want on Wednesday. We need to start practicing now. The rest of the girls are almost ready." Megumi added. They all looked over at the small building and a good number of girls were milling around in practice uniforms, waiting. Brooke noticed they were different from the regular's uniform.

"Sounds good then. Brooke-chan we'll see you on Wednesday then." Aoi spoke happily. Brooke nodded, said her goodbyes, and left as quickly as possible. Things hadn't gone too horrible, but she had felt slightly suffocated. She rushed back to where she had been before and got the things she hadn't been able to pick up previously.

In record time she made it to Piffle. Brooke sat down with a sigh and slumped in the chair. She took Kura out and gave her a toss on the layer from her current positions. Brooke went through her normal routines. She still wanted to learn some new moves. Neither Aya, Jacques, or Aimee could accompany her today. Conan wasn't even working. She thought she saw Renjiro practicing in the corner, but for once it wasn't him. Even when he wasn't there he still saw him. This was occurring much more frequently. Maybe she was becoming paranoid.

She looked out the window. The weather had been good since the last storm left. It was warmer than it had been. This meant the colder weather would hit harder and suddenly. At least the real official tennis matches wouldn't start to spring. For now it would just be practices and warm up matches. Brooke was looking forward to it, but hoped for a nice and long winter. Winter in a new country. Brooke wondered what it would be like. Definitely different from what it was like back in London. London— home. Home— Brandon. Brandon. He was coming to see her in a week. Kura stopped moving in mid jump and fell onto the layer and didn't move an inch. Brooke didn't feel like playing Angelic Layer at the moment.


End file.
